The Best Revenge
by Sakya
Summary: Pansy thought she had the best plan ever to get rid of the competition, but did she? Harry finds a new family and powerful friends in a new country where he can get in to a lot of trouble…as usual. Xover BtVS. Slash.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** The Best Revenge.

**Author:** Sakya

**Summary: **Pansy thought she had the best plan ever to get rid of the competition, but did she? Harry finds a new family and powerful friends in a new country where he can get in to a lot of trouble…as usual.

**Rating:** Oh, my! I don't know yet. I'll have to go over this one later.

**Pairing(s):** Harry? (Yet to be decided)

**Feedback:** desired, craved, needed...

**Characters:** Harry, Buffy, Giles and Gang.

**Betas:** The beautiful Rose, if she is still willing.

**Author's notes:** I had promised myself I would not start a new one before I finished all the ones I had already started… I failed.

**Disclaimer:** Nope, not mine and not profitable… for me, that is. I've heard rumors that J. K. Rowling is doing terribly well, but she writes the originals, maybe it has something to do with that…

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**Chapter 01**

Pansy stormed through the hallways knocking other students out of her way. She hoped they all got hurt, she hoped they all died. Hot tears rolled down her face.

How dare they? How dare HE? Oh, she knew he had fooled around with others but that was small matter, purebloods, especially strong ones always fooled around before getting married… sometimes even after. It was a common, well deserved indulgence. They all knew that. But this time it was different, this time he said the words.

"I love you" he had whispered to his lover in the dark classroom. Pale hands idly running through raven locks.

How dare he? Those words were for her, he had no right saying those to anyone else. But she heard them, whispering to each other, pledging their love.

"I love you" it still ringed in her ears.

They would both pay. No matter what she would have to do, she would have her revenge on Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. They would curse the day they were born.

She wanted revenge. Her whole body screamed for revenge. Revenge… wait. Revenge... Why did that ring a bell?

The book, the book she had stumbled upon in the Restricted Section. The book on revenge!

It had been two, maybe three years ago. One of those ridiculous teachers had given her a permission to research in the Restricted Section and while she was there half hidden behind piles and piles of books she caught a discussion between the librarian and the headmaster. They were discussing the safety of keeping some of the books in the library and she clearly remembered now.

----Flashback----

"But… Headmaster, a book on revenge… beings? And with these summoning spells? What if a student gets their hands on this book?"

"Don't worry, my dear." The headmaster assured her standing at an aisle with only a few shelves., "we will put all the more dangerous volumes here and it will be protected by a password. How about 'forgiveness'?"

"Fine, headmaster, 'forgiveness' it is." Conceded the librarian.

----end of flashback---

Pansy smiled. All she needed now was a pass to the Restricted Section and she would have her revenge.

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The plan to get the pass for the restricted area was so simple it was almost offensive. She told Sprout that she needed some books for her research on deadly plants and how to prevent or heal the damage caused by them and the silly cow gave it to her with very little fuss. The fact that she was actually good at Herbology and that she was actually working on that paper only added credibility to her story.

And now there she was, hidden from the view of the other students, sitting on the floor of the Restricted Section with some herbs and special powder ready to begin the last part of her plan.

She carefully chanted the appropriate words three times with her eyes closed in deep concentration. Nothing happened. Damn, she must have done something wrong. She picked up the book and checked everything over. It was all perfect; she did exactly as the book said it should be done. Why didn't it work?

She put everything back on its place, making sure the herbs were carefully sealed in their jars not to spill anything in her bag, and walked out into the main room of the library. It was almost time for lunch and she didn't want to call attention to what she was doing. She went through the rest of the day as if nothing was wrong. She would try again in her room that night.

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Now was the perfect time, the whole school was watching that stupid third task in the tri-wizard tournament and there would be no one to see what she was doing.

Pansy checked everything over twice. She couldn't afford to make any mistakes this time, she was almost out of more than half of the herbs needed to work that spell. A knock on the door made her jump a little. Sighing she opened the door.

"Oh, hello."

Pansy looked at the common looking girl standing at her door in Slytherin colors. That was odd. A new student? Nobody had said anything about a new student to her. Was she losing prestige or something?

"Who are you?" Pansy demanded rudly.

"I'm Annie, I'm a new student. It was kind of a last minute thing," the new girl noticed the herbs and the runes on the floor. "Wow, what are you doing?" she asked entering in the room and closing the door.

"It's nothing" Pansy started, but she was tired and frustrated, her summoning didn't work and she couldn't figure out what she did wrong. She sat on her bed and rechecked the ritual, again everything seemed to be perfect. It should have worked.

Extremely frustrated, Pansy set her notes aside and concentrated on getting to know the new Slytherin. What kind of name was Annie anyway? Was she even a pureblood?

After a careful and discrete background check, placing the right questions in their conversation she felt at ease enough to start talking to this girl and for some reason she started to tell her how Draco had betrayed her with someone else and how she wanted them to suffer. They were betrothed for crying out loud. Annie was the perfect listener, she placed the right questions in the right places and got enraged and shocked with their betrayal like a proper pureblood girl should.

"You know what," Pansy concluded after hours of whining, "It would all be perfect if Harry Potter just minded his own business, but no, he had to come and get in the way of my engagement. Draco and I belong together and he got in the way. Now nobody will respect me anymore and I'll lose all my friends. I just wish… Merlin, I wish Harry Potter would find out what is like to be betrayed and abandoned by those he loves, to lose everything. I wish they would throw him in Azkaban. I wish he was out of my way for good."

"Wish granted," Pansy heard, she turned around and saw a she-demon standing where the new girl had been only a second ago. Pansy screamed and fell unconscious on her bed.

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Severus Snape was sitting on his lab doing his best to ignore the whole nonsense of this stupid competition. There were better uses for his time than to cheer like a raving lunatic over some underachiever who managed not to get himself killed doing a mindless task.

Suddenly his arm started to burn in pain. The surprise of it all almost knocked him out of his chair. It had been years ever since he felt anything like that, ever since… no, it couldn't be. It couldn't!

Snape hastily rolled up his left sleeve and watched horrified as the faded tattoo on his arm became more and more vivid, turning from the shadow it had became to pitch black like it had been years ago.

The dark lord was back.

As the pain became more intense, Snape fought to get on his feet, he had to warn Dumbledore immediately. Before he could get to the door a surge of pain made him fall to his knees and the last thing to cross Snape's mind before he fainted in to merciful oblivion was that the dark lord was particular angry that night.

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Out on the grounds the whole school was screaming. Just a few seconds ago Harry Potter had popped right in front of them holding the body of a very dead Cedric Diggory and claiming that the dark lord had returned. Everybody panic and tried to run back to the safety of the castle at the same time.

It took the teachers and the Ministry staff a few tries to make everybody calm down, reassuring them that He-who-must-not-be-named had not returned and that everything was fine.

Anyanka stood in the shadows, making sure that the wish went according to plan and that the little home-wrecker was indeed taken out of the picture. That was when she first saw him.

He was bloodied and most certainly injured. She could see the effects of a dark pain curse lingering around him. His glasses were almost falling off his face and his unruly black hair was matted with dirt. His clothes were also dirty, like he had rolled on the ground, and torn, his arms still around his dead classmate and he was obviously in shock. But she paid no mind to that, humans were disgusting anyway. No, what caught her attention was the many destiny lines connected to him.

A vengeance demon like her could always see destiny lines. It was what told them how far they could go on a vengeance, and judging by the amount of destinies tied to this kid she had just gone a few miles too far. She would have to take this problem to her boss. Yeah, that's what she would do. He could solve it in a heart beat. Having solved the problem in her mind, Anyanka shimmered away to the hell dimension she called home.

On the school grounds, the problems were just getting started.

"Dumbledore, this is your fault entirely," boomed Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, "this protégé of yours is trying to cause panic amongst the Wizarding World."

"He's lying. He killed the boy and now wants us to believe someone else did it. The dark lord is dead."

"Attention seeker"

The crowd was getting louder and louder as they went on about how Harry was lying to cover a murder that he had committed. Unable to control the mob, Dumbledore allowed the Ministry staff to take Harry with them. He feared things could easily escalate to violence if Harry had been allowed to remain in Hogwarts.

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A large horned figure was sitting at an ancient desk reading some scrolls. Everything around him, about him, screamed power. His pale skin didn't show the signs of his extremely long life but his eyes reflected the knowledge of someone who had seen more than a mere mortal could conceive. Nothing but darkness surrounded him as he was not in a room; there were no walls on this place. This was HIS place, his dimension; all that existed here did so with his permission. He was the mighty D'Hoffryn, ruler of the vengeance demons(1) and no one would bother him at his place of work… well, almost no one.

A she-demon with golden locks and in full black school uniform with green and silver details marched up to him and sat at a chair across from him, propping her feet at the top of his desk. The older demon sighed remembering a time when he did receive the proper respect from his minions, but then again, this one had always been different.

"D'Hoffryn, we have to talk," she started paying no mind that she was interrupting whatever he was doing.

"What's on your mind, Anyanka?" he asked, he knew it would do no good to ignore or yell at this vengeance demon, not enough common sense in her to do any good anyway.

"There was something wrong on my last job" she stated shedding the 'Annie' outfit and reassuming her demon robes.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" she started, frowning as she searched for the right words "I was summoned to this one, not called by her grief as usual but summoned with a ritual, which is unusual but I though it was because of all the magical wards placed at this school she was at. Then everything went as it was supposed to go. She wished, I dished. Job's done."

"And why do you think something was wrong about this one?" asked D'Hoffryn. He knew his demons had a sixth sense about this sort of things.

"Ever since I did the job something seems out of place. I just don't feel right about this one. I want you to check this debt. The intended casualty had all these destiny lines tied to him. I just know something is not right!"

D'Hoffryn looked at his demon, she was troubled about this job. Not a good sign. Never a good sign, Anyanka had been working for him for over 1.100 years and he could count on his fingers the times that she was wrong about a job related matter. Thoughtfully, he picked up a large black leather book with bold red letters across the cover where one could read 'Book of Vengeance' and started to check.

"My, my… this is not good," D'Hoffryn muttered double checking his book, "it seems that you are right about this one, Anyanka. A debt was created with this job, not paid. And the foot notes on this one… call Halfrek, this had to do with a wronged child, it's her area."

Anyanka turned around concentrating on her long time friend, the demon Halfrek who took care of children's vengeance.

"Hallie! Hallie!" Anyanka called out in the darkness, "D'Hoffryn and I need to talk to you… It has to do with a child."

"Anya! Dear, there is no need to shout like a commoner." Halfrek smiled at her friend as she shimmered in to existence, "I'm here. Now, what is so important for me to be summoned here? And how come I didn't sense this child in need of my assistance?"

"Well, it's kind of an out of the ordinary deal. D'Hoffryn is looking into it now." Anyanka explained, bouncing on the balls of her feet like she usually did. They turned to their boss only to find him talking to two glowing humanoids that weren't there before.

"Uh, this is big," murmured Halfrek, "The Powers that Be(2) are here. They never get involve with vengeance."

"Halfrek, Anyanka." Called D'Hoffryn, "come forward."

"Greetings to you on this occasion, powerful ones." The demons bowed their heads in sign of respect for the glowing beings in front of them.

"Greetings, Vengeance demons," said the being that appeared to be a female with light blue skin and white silvery hair, "we face a crossroad due to your latest job and yet you did what was right by your nature. The rules of fate have been obeyed, but the object of your vengeance was neither deserving nor a wandering mortal. He was one with a destiny, a destiny that must be fulfilled or many will suffer, for he is a favored child of magic. His path must remain in front of him."

Anyanka started to go over the problem in her head. That was certainly a major problem of both demon and mortal realms. Mortals usually didn't have a destiny, they just wandered through existence. Vengeance demons could throw them around as they pleased, but every now and then a mortal would be born with a destiny that would help shape the future of many. To be born with a destiny in magic also meant that you could affect not only humans but every other creature that delved into magic, including demons.

What could not be changed in this situation? She had been called and acted upon a vengeance wish, there was no going back on that, but the outcome was not written in stone yet. If what happened was already out of their hands, the future was the only way to prevent a disaster, but she needed more information.

"And what is his destiny?"

"The mortal known as Harry Potter is the one destined to face the new magical dark lord in combat. Because this dark lord has already died and managed to return, he has tied magic to his existence. If he wins, magic will became tainted and increasingly more difficult to perform up to the point where the whole planet will become a magical void, eradicating all mortals able to use magic and trapping many of your kind in that place without the power to free themselves."

"That is horrible," Halfrek shivered, "We must make sure this child wins then…"

"NO!" both beings yelled at the same time, "That is forbidden. No one must tip the outcome of that battle. They must fight alone and with only their powers and abilities. Due to past deeds the demon races have lost the right to intervene in this one."

"We hear and we obey," bowed D'Hoffryn, behind him Anyanka and Halfrek did the same.

"The extent of your influence will be to make sure the boy does not die ahead of his time because of this wish and that he will be where he has to be, when he has to be, so that his destiny is fulfilled. Other than that we let the boy walk his own path. You must not intervene." They ordered as they disappeared.

"Like hell we won't intervene!" spurted Anyanka. "D'Hoffryn, we have to do something! I don't want to blip out of existence because some spoiled little witch couldn't take a hint."

A soft chime rang through the air, calling the demon's attention.

"Blast, I'm being called back to earth." She whined, "Well, think of something." She demanded as she disappeared.

Halfrek decided that it would be a good time to go too, maybe check on her own book of vengeance to see what she could find out about this Harry Potter, but before she could do anything D'Hoffryn called her.

"Stay a while, my little demon. Something important is happening…" D'Hoffryn closed his eyes and concentrated. Halfrek knew what he was doing, he was checking the future outcome of a wish and she briefly wondered if it was the one involving the magic child.

"Ah! Yes, my punishment for Anyanka is in motion. She really should be more careful about the jobs she takes," Halfrek felt a small hint of fear for her friend, she knew D'Hoffryn would not let this go unpunished. Not that he cared about Anyanka's demand for him to do something, it was the imminent danger she had placed all demons at. "She does tend to rush in without getting a hold of all the facts first."

"But she is very good at her job." Halfrek reminded him.

D'Hoffryn turned to face the brunette demon. Her black locks curling around her face gave her a somewhat angelic look and her sweet smile always helped when approaching children. Yes, she was perfect for her job. The older demon pondered over his options a little and made his decision. He knew now what to do with the wizard child.

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**Author's Note:**

(1) Vengeance Demons – self explanatory. They deliver vengeance in the Buffyverse and tend to specialize in an area (Anya goes to wronged women and Hallie to abused children, there might be more but only those two - and D'Hoffryn - showed up in the series).

(2) Something like The Fates in the Buffyverse.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 02**

"Halfrek, this Harry person, is just a child, a fourteen year old child. Therefore I'm assigning you to his case." Out of thin air he brought forth a thick manila file and handed to the she-demon in front of him. "You see, Anyanka just met a few powerful individuals. The outcome… won't be pleasant for her (3) but it did gave me the opportunity I was waiting to take a closer look at those individuals."

"And who are they, D'Hoffryn?" asked Halfrek letting curiosity get the best of her. The old demon just smiled.

"Oh, It's a group of very nice people. I believe you will like them," D'Hoffryn waved his hands and a small screen appeared floating at his side showing a group of people sitting around in a common looking living room.

"This is the mother of this little house-hold, Joyce Summers." A nice looking blond woman come into focus, "She is a normal American mom who works in an art gallery and raises her only child. Her ex-husband lives in another city a few hours away and often forgets to visit their child."

"I don't like him already." Halfrek could not see why these people were so important.

"Oh, but let me introduce you to the rest of the family. This is her daughter, Buffy," a pretty blond teenager girl appeared in the screen, "and she… is the vampire slayer."

Now Halfrek was interested. The slayer was a very powerful being… for a mortal.

"Her friends," now a red-headed girl with a blue-headed boy and a larger boy, a brunette, were sitting on a couch listening to the slayer's mother, "are a wiccan witch, a werewolf and… well, the other boy is just a mortal but he had been fighting vampires for over two years now."

Halfrek checked her files. Willow Rosenberg was the witch, her boyfriend Daniel 'Oz" Osbourne, was the werewolf and Alexander 'Xander' LaVelle Harris, the other vampire hunter.

"And of course, Mr. Rupert Giles, Miss Summers' watcher, who happens to be dating her mother for the past few weeks… there was something about a chocolate incident and the hood of a police car(4), but I didn't get all the details."

Now Halfrek could definitely see some possibilities for this set up. There were some powerful individuals in this mix. Harry would get all the support and training that he needed, both in magical as in physical combat. It was perfect.

"No one said we couldn't make sure the boy doesn't end up in a place where he will get the proper training for the upcoming battle. Did they?" D'Hoffryn smiled gently at his demon, "Just because he has to go away, it doesn't mean he can't be trained and I, for one, share Anyanka's feelings of not wanting to 'blip out' of existence."

Agreeing whole hearted with her boss and mentor, Halfrek opened the file and started to read up on her new assignment. Maybe she would get an idea of how she could bring Harry together with his future friends.

Two hours later D'Hoffryn was beginning to regret his decision. Halfrek was still yelling, apparently her new protégé was a poster child for abused children and she would move heaven and hell to make sure he was avenged.

"Not unless he wishes." D'Hoffryn pointed out, "Those are the rules, Halfrek. You know that. Unless he wishes for revenge you will restrain yourself to do only what I ordered you to do. The Powers that Be are holding us responsible for the detour on the boy's path, let's not give them more reason to be angry at us. Just make sure he will have the right friends, that we are allow to do."

"In that case, let me take one step further," she demanded, D'Hoffryn raised an eyebrow in a silent question, "let me make them family."

"We cannot change the life of a destiny holder!"

"But I can arrange his future." That made D'Hoffryn pause.

"How?"

"I can make him be adopted. I can give him a powerful and loving family, it would not change his destiny," Halfrek noticed that her boss was tempted by her plan, one more reason and she would get to do things her way, "but it would give him powerful allies to stand by him in battle…" and that did the trick.

"You have my permission. Do what you have to do." And with a wave of D'Hoffryn's hand, Halfrek found herself back in her little corner of the Vengeance dimension where she sat herself to work on her new case.

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Over the next few weeks all Halfrek did was to plot and plan how to turn Harry's life around, taking as little time as possible to work on the occasional child wish that came her way. Finally, after countless hours of preparation, she was ready and with very little fuss she vanished from her desk and reappeared in a secluded area in the Ministry of Magic Atrium. It didn't take long to do her job, just a matter of jamming the floo network for a few hours; just enough to make sure the wizards were forced to take another means of transportation.

Satisfied with her work, the brunette vanished out of the Ministry and rematerialized in deserted alley in London.

The Vengeance demon disguised herself as an old lady full of bags in her hands and a severe limp before she started to make her way across the street. As she passed the parked automobiles an unremarkable black car turned on the corner at an impossible speed.

The driver never saw the old lady until he was almost on top of her, which forced him to make a sharp turn to the right, lose control of the car and crash head on with a truck coming in the opposite direction. Halfrek didn't pause to admire her perfect handwork, the next part of her plan was about to be set in motion.

Inside the car, the driver laid unconscious across the front seat while in the back seat the three passengers could barely move. The truck driver was helped out from behind the wheel, he had a large cut in his head and was complaining about a lot of pain, but seemed to be fine. Bystanders quickly hushed over to the black car and phoned for an ambulance, the driver of the black car was unconscious but seemed unharmed, the three passengers on the back sit seemed just shaken and a bit dizzy. No one noticed as the smallest of the three managed to grab a stick from one of the others and hide it in his sleeve.

Three ambulances arrived at the scene almost at the same time. The ambulance's crews later would be unable to tell why they decided to split up the victims the way they did. Usually the victims from one car would be kept together, the only difference being on the case of a victim under the age of 16, who would be taken to a different area, but generally to the same hospital.

As it was, the truck driver was taken along with three of the passengers from the black car to one hospital and the fourth passenger, victim number five, was taken to a completely different one. Where he was checked over and declared unharmed by the crash, and that was how a young man named Harry Potter found himself sitting in a hospital bed talking to a very nice muggle lady from the social services, but that was were his luck ended.

Upon arrival at the hospital, the nurses took his old ragged and dirty clothes and dressed him in a hospital gown, taking his newly 'acquired' wand with them. He was defenseless once more.

In his hospital bed, Harry was receiving the visit of a very nice brunette with curly hair and a pleasant smile. She identified herself as his social worker.

"Well, dear," the pretty lady said with a sweet smile, her black curls shaking merrily around her face, "I've checked your file and the doctors have declared you have no injures from the car crash, but that is why we do have a problem…" she trailed off with a frown on her face while she checked whatever was written in her file.

Harry was ready to jump out of the bed and run for it.

He could not believe his luck, this morning he was sure he was going to die. They had taken him from Azkaban where he was 'waiting for trial' and taken him to the Ministry of Magic for interrogation. He had been in prison for over a month now and he just knew he would not live to make a full year. The prison guards couldn't care less if he was a minor, they simply hated the fact that their 'hero' had gone dark and made sure Harry was aware of how they felt about his betrayal.

Over the last month Harry had been beaten, denied food and even kept under Dementors watch for longer periods of time than other prisoners. Taking all that in to consideration and adding the car crash on the way back from the Ministry it was a miracle he could still understand what the woman was saying.

The icing on the cake, of course, had happen during his stay at the Ministry for the so called interrogation. His friends, all the ones he cared the most about had come by to tell him what a horrible creature he was and how they were all ashamed to have ever claimed him as a friend. Ron, Hermione, all the other Weasleys even Percy had come to gloat.

Sirius and Remus never did show up. Harry knew they were hiding and that Sirius was still on the run; that gave him some small measure of comfort as he could pretend they believed him to be innocent, even Dumbledore made sure to come by and tell him how much of a disappointment he was and how his parents would never forgive him for what he had done.

'For what he had done', just like that and it was final. There was no doubt in them that Harry had killed Cedric Diggory. They had believed Harry could do such a horrible thing and not even once they had bothered to even ask. Not even a 'why'. To them, he was guilty and that was it.

Well, to hell with them and the rest of the wizarding freaking world. He had it. As soon as the pretty lady from social services left the room he would get up and go away. Someplace they would never find him and let them deal with their dark lords and half baked friendships.

The pretty lady touched his hand getting his attention back to her.

"Hello, are you there?" she smiled at him, "For a second there I thought I lost you."

"Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind." His voice was raspy and it did hurt to talk, maybe because he had been screaming all morning. "Please go on, … I didn't catch your name."

"It's ok, dear, and you can call me Hallie." Halfrek gave Harry her best smile. Yes, this one would be ok. Just a couple more details and her job here would be done. "As I was saying, the doctors couldn't find any wounds that could have happen in the crash, but you are severely malnourished and bruised. Care to tell me what happened?"

"I… felt down the stairs?" it was half a question, Harry knew Hallie wouldn't buy his story but he really didn't feel like he could come up with good explanation and the truth would only get him in trouble. Exposing the whole wizarding world now would not be a good idea, even if it was to tell the social service that he had been beat up by aurors.

"Why don't you let me tell you what I know and then you can fill in the blanks?" Hallie asked.

"Ok"

"Your name is Harry, you live with your uncle, aunt and cousin in Surrey and failed to come home last month when your boarding school let you out for the summer. How am I doing so far?"

"Spot on." Harry relaxed a little, of course the social service would check the identity of a minor involved in a car crash, and he did have name tags on his clothes which happen to be his school uniforms, the only thing he had left after being taken from Hogwarts right after the third task. "But do I have to go back to my relatives? Couldn't I just… you know… go away?"

"Not really," Hallie did seem apologetic, "You are still a minor, so the law requires that a responsible adult should take care of you. However, when we checked with your aunt, she said she didn't want you back and was ready to sign away her guardianship, making you a ward of the government. You wouldn't have to go back to your relatives, but you would have to go to a half way home until you are 18. I could contact you school and see if they could…"

"No." Harry yelled, "I… I decide to drop out. Could I go to school around here instead?"

"Was there any problems at your school, Harry?" The concerned look on her face made Harry cringe; he could not allow her to go investigating his old school. He would be found in no time. He decided to play the poor student card.

"They all know me there. I don't want them to know I got myself in trouble. I would never hear the end of it."

"Well, I suppose I could overlook this detail just this once," Halfrek pretended to consider the problem. She really had no intention of contacting those horrible people and let them know where HER Harry was at the moment. "Ok, but only because your aunt is considering signing the guardianship papers. I think I can put this off until a more defined situation is established. Are you sure you don't want to give it another try at your uncle's or even remain at the same school?"

"Mer… I mean, Lord, no. I wish I could just go to a place where nobody knew me and I could start my life all over again. I wish they would just… I don't know lose my file or something like that." Harry said almost to himself, he didn't notice the nice lady from social services showing a demon visage for a few seconds before changing back to her pleasant human face before Harry turned to her again, "So, when do I get out of here?"

"It might take a few days. You are severely malnourished. The doctors want to make sure you can actually walk before they allow you back on your feet." Halfrek gave him another of her smiles and got up, "Listen, I have to see another kid downstairs but I'll be back here in two hours. Is that ok? And don't worry, I'll make sure your wish is granted."

"Sure, Hallie. No problem." Harry answered automatically already so involved in planning his grand escape from the hospital that he didn't noticed Halfrek's last words.

Halfrek stayed around for another moment making sure she had everything and a male nurse came in with a syringe.

"What is that for?" asked Harry worried about not being able to defend himself in case of something happening.

"Just something to help you relax, dear." Halfrek answered before the nurse could open his mouth, "your body has been through a lot lately. Rest for a bit, I'll be here before you wake up."

Harry wanted to kick and scream; he could not be put to sleep now. The aurors were probably already on their way, he had to run not sleep.

He was out like a light before Halfrek stepped out of the room.

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**Author's note:**

(3) Refers to "The Wish" episode 09 in Season 03.

(4) Refers to "Band Candy" episode 06 in Season 03 of BtVS.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: **

Sorry to bother, just one small detail. Kaear (Thank you for the review, love) sent me a review asking about the characters age and pointing that Harry should be older than I say he is. True, he should, but for this fic to work I took the liberty of making him some three or four years younger. Is the summer after his fourth year, he is not yet 15 and Buffy has just graduated from High School, she is 18 as stated in 'Helpless', episode 12, Season 03.

**------------ **

**Chapter 03 **

Rupert Giles was sitting at the restaurant table looking at the two most important people in his life, Joyce and Buffy, as they studied the city map deciding on what they would do today. He was forced to smile at their enthusiasm and pondered about how he got to this blessed place in life.

A little over three years ago he had received a mission from the watchers council. He was to go to Sunnydale, California and work with the new slayer. It was an important mission, the life goal of a watcher, to work with the active slayer… but Sunnydale was nothing in the middle of nowhere, or so he thought.

Talk about being wrong.

Sunnydale was on the top of a Hellmouth, the center of mystical conversion for all demon activities. A quiet week meant only the normal dozen vampires, not to mention their already traditional apocalypse almost happening at least once a year.

And yet, Buffy bloomed. The annoying child he had first met was fast becoming… well, an annoying young woman, but he loved her like a father. Yes, that he did, and it had cost him his job as a watcher(5), but he didn't regret it for a moment. He had remained in Sunnydale and continued to work with Buffy and the scoobies fighting the forces of evil.

It was during one of these fights that a small problem with cursed chocolate had occurred. He was still embarrassed with the things he had done that night but at least that night had brought him and Joyce together. It was an awkward start, they still couldn't look at a police car, but strangely enough, things were working out between them and now they were in England.

After they had literally blown up the school during graduation to get rid of the demon the Mayor had turned himself into, they decided to spend at least part of the summer in England where Giles had to pick up a few things and take care of some business and now there they were having lunch at a pub and deciding what to do with the rest of their afternoon.

The door opened and a pretty brunette with shiny black curls and a sweet smile came in. Giles noticed her because the pattern on her dress reminded him of his mother, the sweetest woman he had ever met and the only reason he had ever considered having a family of his own. Joyce and his mother would have loved each other. He could even hear them talking about taking care of the house and the family while still holding 'real' jobs. He couldn't help but smile at the cozy little scene.

"You look happy," he heard Joyce saying. Looking up he noticed Buffy still engrossed in the map and Joyce leaning towards him.

"I'm happy." He said taking her hand in his and kissing her fingers, "I am very happy."

"You must be, you are letting Buffy choose where to go… you do realize we are bound to spend countless hours visiting every shop ever known to men and a few obscure ones only known to women, right?"

"Yes, yes, I realize I'm signing up for a fate worse than death." Giles sighed taking his glasses off his face and cleaning them.

"Hey, I heard that!" Buffy said from the other side of the table before going back to study her map.

"Did you ever consider having other children?" Giles asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Joyce's voice was a bit sad and she had a longing look in her eyes, "but Hank never wanted to hear about it and now… well, I'm not exactly young anymore. Did you ever want children?"

"Yes," Giles murmured, "but I never found the right person… until now."

"Oh, Rupert. But…" Joyce looked at him feeling lost. How could she tell him she couldn't have anymore children?

"We could always adopt," he offered, "I mean, if you do want… I mean…I-I-It's n-n-not l-like…" he started stuttering.

"Yes. I do," said Joyce coming for his rescue, "I would love to have a larger family with you, Rupert." They smiled at each other keeping their entwined fingers on the top of the table.

Halfrek smiled. Another piece of her puzzle was in place. All she needed to do now was bring them all together, just two more little nudges in the right direction. On cue, a group of five people dressed up as doctors came in the pub and sat in the table right next to the Sunnydale trio.

"I'm just saying I'm sorry for the kid," explained a petite female with brown shoulder length hair tied in a pony tail, "he seems like a nice kid who took one wrong step in life and now is being deserted by his family. They are signing away their guardianship for Christ sake, just because the kid dabbled with magic or some silliness like that. Is that enough reason to throw him in an orphanage?"(6)

Giles and Joyce's heads shot up and they started to listen to the doctors' conversation. Even Buffy was now paying attention to the table next to them.

"Apparently his uncle and aunt are very religious or something like that, they don't want a 'freak' in the family" said a small oriental young man using his hands to do the quotes mark in the air as he spoke.

"God, some people can be so closed minded. What happened to his parents?"

"Well, McCormick told me that when he went over to talk to the family there was only the uncle and the aunt. They said something about the boy's parents dying in a car crash when he was one year old, and get this, apparently his parents were also in this magic stuff."

"A lot of people are in this sort of thing now a days. A couple of neighbors of mine are witches… wicky, I think they call themselves." A brunette offered.

"Wicca. Wicca is the word you're looking for. I was one you know," said the first doctor and getting strange looks and raised eyebrows from her colleagues, "it's true, I was. In the first few years at the Uni there was a large group of us who would do all these crazy spells and rituals… nothing ever happened, but still."

"You were a Satanist?" asked another girl in hospital scrubs.

"What? No! We were Wiccan. A completely different religion if you really want to know. It has to do with respecting nature… it's very cool."

"And this kid is one of those?" asked a tall blond man. Upon receiving a nod from his companions he shook his head, "and now they are dumping the kid on the street… so to speak. What did he do that was so terrible anyway? Invoke the devil? Danced naked with the next door neighbor's daughter?"

They all laughed and joked about it, never noticing the glances the Sunnydale trio was exchanging at their table. Joyce didn't know any specifics but it did seem right up Buffy's alley and Buffy and Giles had an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu. Unconsciously, Giles rubbed his hand over the mark of Egon(7) still in his arm. Perhaps it would be a good idea paying a short visit to the hospital and checking up on a certain young man there.

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Less then 30 minutes later the Sunnydale crew was making their way down the hospital hall on the fourth floor to see this kid who was about to be shipped off to an orphanage and try to decide if he was just another victim of the New Age trend or a serious dabbler in the dark arts, in which case it could be a problem for the slayer.

Buffy was still complaining about inconsiderate warlocks and ruined summer vacations when they heard voices coming from inside the bedroom they were heading for. Demon voices. Buffy and Giles immediately went into battle mode, handing their bags over to Joyce, who took a look out position on the hall.

The slayer and the watcher crept closer to the door grabbing two crutches on the way and listening as the voices became clearer.

"Are you sure this is the one? He looks rather small for a hero." Mused a small grayish demon with red robes.

"Yes, I'm sure and he is not a hero yet, that is why the boss wants us to kill him now and get it over with before he gets to train properly and becomes a problem," was the answer of a similar demon in brown robes who seemed to be the leader of the duo.

"Oh! That is a good plan" pondered the first one as he watched the other demon take a big hunting knife out of his robes, "Wait! Shouldn't we say a few words for our dearly departed first?"

"What? No, we don't even know him, he can't be a dearly departed… he is not even departed yet." Snapped the demon in brown.

"I suppose you're right." He sees his friend raising the knife again, but this time is the other demon who hesitates. "What is the problem now?"

"The boss said it should look like natural causes. Do you suppose the humans would be suspicious if he died of a knife wound?"

"Why would they be suspicious? Most creatures die when stabbed in the heart. It's as natural as it can be."

"Oh, please" a new voice startled them, they turned around to see a small blond girl and a fully grown male human at the door, "You two have got to be the dumbest demons I've ever come across."

"Get out, little girl, let us do our work and you'll live to see another day." The one who seemed to be the boss snarled at them.

"Um… nope, sorry. No can do." Said the blond, the older male seemed amazed by the whole situation, "You see, my job is to stop you, so I do my job and you DON'T live to see another day."

"And who do you think you are to stop us?" asked the demon.

"Oh, my bad, I didn't introduce myself. Did I? I'm Buffy Summers, the vampire slayer, and you are?"

"THE SLAYER!" yelled the demon in red before jumping out of the window, leaving his companion alone in the room with the slayer and her watcher.

The remaining demon looked around, considered the situation for two seconds and jumped out of the window after his friend.

"Hey, that was not fun. The least they could do was put up a fight." Complained Buffy looking down to the spot where the two dead demons where melting in to a jelly like substance and disappearing while Giles signaled Joyce to come in the room with them and closed the door behind her.

"Yes, yes, most annoying," agreed Giles absently minded, "I'll make sure to write a formal complaint to the proper authorities. Now, Buffy, we have to tend to the matter at hand. This… young man here is apparently important and obviously some demon boss wants him dead."

"Well, why is he important?" asked Joyce setting the bags in a chair and moving closer to the bed where the small teen rested, none of them noticed the door opening silently, "and who is he?"

"His name is Harry," said a new voice by the door. The three of them turned to see a smiling brunette wearing a white doctors coat, "Hello, I'm Hallie, Harry's social worker. I'm handling his case."

"Hello, I'm Rupert Giles, my fiancée Joyce Summers and her daughter Buffy." Giles made the introductions purposely ignoring Buffy's smile and inquiring look at the 'fiancée' announcement.

They all shook hands and Hallie signaled for them to follow her into the hall where they could talk without disturbing the sleeping teen.

"I didn't expect the orphanage to send someone so soon. I take it his aunt signed the papers then. The poor kid," Hallie sighed and shook her head walking down the hall before they had the chance to correct her, "I'll just go get his files."

"What do we do now? We can't leave this kid all alone. What if this 'boss' person sends another demon?" asked Buffy.

"We'll stay for awhile," decided Joyce, "Buffy, could you go downstairs and maybe buy us a magazine or something? Rupert, perhaps the Watcher Council knows something we could use, I don't mean for you to contact them directly, but maybe you could talk to a friend still working with them?"

"Ok, mom." Said Buffy already out of the door.

"Good thinking, darling." Giles fished a small leather address book from his pocket, "I'll be down the hall making a few calls… and, oh! Look at this." He bends down and picks up the discarded knife the demons left behind. "Oh, my. It's a ceremonial dagger of rebirth. Seems unused… that is strange."

"Rebirth? I though they meant to kill the kid. Why would they use a 'rebirth' dagger?" asked Joyce looking at the dagger. She couldn't tell what seemed so special about it, but found very amusing the fact that she was already picking up a few things on her daughter and fiancé's line of work.

"If memory serves, the use of this dagger would not only kill the kid but also… mask his identity."

"What?" Joyce blinked confused.

"The hospital staff would have found an unidentified body laying on this bed. They would not be able to tell who he was. It's a total wipe of his records so to speak. I have to make those calls right away."

"You go. I'll stay here and scream at the top of my lungs if anything unusual happens," offered Joyce already pushing Giles out of the door and turning to look around the room, "well, unusual for most people anyway."

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Downstairs Buffy was looking at the magazines, deciding which ones she wanted to buy when a movement outside the window caught her attention. On the lawn three more demons were trying, and failing miserably as far as the slayer was concern, to get in the hospital unnoticed. Putting the magazines down, Buffy ran upstairs to alert Giles and her mother, she had seen those three but it was possible that more of them were already inside and making their way to the kid's room. Giles could defend himself but her mother was a completely different story.

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Giles sat his little phonebook down and started to search for change in his pockets when he heard Harry's name in a whispered conversation.

"So, where is that so called hero?" asked a muffled voice.

"Harry Potter is somewhere on this floor. I can't tell exactly, there are too many people here for us to cast the spell again. We'll be seen." Answered a second one.

"It doesn't matter. We are close enough as it is. He is in one of these rooms. We'll search them all and make sure the kid is gone for good before the end of the day."

Hastily gathering his things, Giles ran down the hall before who ever was around the corner had the chance to see him. They were fast running out of time. As Giles left, two aurors peeked around the corner to see if anybody was near and spelled their clothes to look like something muggles would wear and proceeded to check each room in search of the escaped prisoner. Their orders were to take him back to Azkaban as soon as they found him.

Buffy and Giles got to the door almost at the same time.

"We have to get him out of here, there are at least two warlocks searching the floor for him," said Giles as soon as they closed the door.

"That is not good. There are three more demons downstairs. I think their boss wants the job done pretty bad." Offered Buffy while removing her jacket, it would only slow her down in a fight.

"Pretty badly" corrected Giles without thinking. "We must do something fast, we can't fight our way out of this hospital. It's too crowded to avoid hurting innocent bystanders, besides, we don't know if he can be moved."

"Can't we just hide for awhile?" asked Joyce.

"No, they got locater spell tracking the kid. They would find us anyway." Muttered Giles while picking at the hallway trying to calculate how much time they had.

"The window is no good. Too high." Offered Buffy looking out of it.

"The dagger" yelled Joyce. Buffy and Giles stopped, looking at her. "You said it would mask the boy's identity. Couldn't we do something with it? I don't mean kill him, but…"

"It might work." Mused Buffy.

"The risk…" started Giles.

"It's better than certain death." Interrupted Joyce.

"But it's not that simple… h-h-he would need a new identity, not simply lose the old one." Stuttered Giles.

"Adopt him." Ordered Joyce.

"What?"

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**Author's Note:**

(5) Refers to "Helpless" episode 12 in Season 03 of BtVS.

(6) The doctors are offering the explanation it was given to them as close as possible to reality so that attracts Giles attention, as per Halfrek's plan.

(7) Refers to "The Dark Place" episode 08 in Season 02 of BtVS.


	4. Chapter 4

"_The dagger" yelled Joyce. Buffy and Giles stopped looking at her. "You said it would mask the boy's identity. Couldn't we do something with it? I don't mean kill him, but…"_

"_It might work." Mused Buffy._

"_The risk…" started Giles._

"_It's better than certain death." Interrupted Joyce._

"_But it's not that simple… h-h-he would need a new identity, not simply lose the old one." Stuttered Giles._

"_Adopt him." Ordered Joyce._

"_What?" _

**Chapter 04**

"You said you wanted other kids, this one needs a chance and who better to deal with him if he turns out to be a menace than us?" reasoned Joyce in a hurry handing Giles the dagger, "listen, we don't have the time to argue about this one. I know it's the right thing to do and it's his only chance!"

Seeing that Giles was still undecided Buffy made up her mind.

"Do it," she said walking out of the door, "Mom is right, we are his only chance right now and the only ones who can deal with it if he turns out to be one of the bad guys. You work on the spell and I'll stall whoever is coming."

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Down in the Hospital laundry, a small package with Harry's room number on it sat quietly on a shelf until a young man with raven hair comes running in. He had the wild look of someone being chased and the heavy breathing that indicated that he had been running. He looks around frantically and grabs the package, diving inside the janitor closet nearby. A few minutes later the young man leaves, now wearing Harry's school uniform and trying to rearrange his appearance.

In the shadows, Hallie watches him with her arms crossed and a feral look on her demon face. She could still hear little Jonathan's sobs as he laid on the dirty floor in the basement where he was being kept by his bully neighbor, Sean Burns. He was cold, scared and hungry. His neighbor, a much older boy, had lured him downstairs saying he had a Playstation 2 and would let him play. That was two days ago.

The older boy had beaten Jonathan and touched him in the swimming suit area, where his teacher, Miss Clare, told him nobody should touch him except his doctor and in front of his mommy.

Jonathan had been living in a nightmare for two days now, when the older boy was not with him make him ache and cry, he was left alone in the dark and damp basement and he was afraid of the dark, but now there was something different, an angel had come to him.

She smiled at him and said that her name was Hallie and that she would make it all better, all he would have to do was to wish really hard, with all his heart, for what he wanted. Jonathan closed his eyes and made fists with his tiny little hands and wished really really hard.

"I wish mommy and daddy would find me so I could go home and I really wish someone would lock the bad guy in the dark where he would be scared and cry for his mommy like I did so he would learn never to do this again."

Hallie smiled and brushed a few dirty locks of hair out of Jonathan's face. She kissed his forehead and whispered softly in his ear.

"Wish granted."

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On the fourth floor of the hospital, Buffy stood in the hallway ready to get physical if anyone tried to enter the room behind her, and right now she could see two men stop in front of every door and check who was inside. They gave a very strong 'officer of the law' vibe but they also seemed a bit off, like Willow and Giles off. Magic users. The warlocks. Two of them in a hall full of innocent people.

'_Great!' _thought Buffy ironically_, 'and it keeps getting better.' _

Looking around and trying to figure out a way to stall them, Buffy almost cursed under her breath, from the other side of the hallway she could see the social worker coming her way with a manila file on her hands. By the look of things they would all arrive in front of her at the same time.

"Hello, Miss Summers," the brunette smiled at her, "I was going over our young friend's files and there are a few things I'll need to discuss with Mr. Giles. Is he inside?"

"Uh… yes, but you know what, I've been meaning to ask you a few things on my own, if you don't mind…" said Buffy getting in the woman's path and effectively blocking the door.

The two men were now standing right across the hall, it would be impossible to open the door without letting them see who was inside.

"Yes, of course, what would you like to know?" The social worker paused in front of Buffy with her back turned to the men. A brief and faint flash of light inside the manila folder caught Buffy's attention, and she was sure no one else had seen it. Crossing her fingers, Buffy hoped it had all worked well.

"Well… you see, you work helping people and I think that is sooooo cool, I was wondering…" Buffy started, but the door behind her opened cutting her half way what she was saying.

"Oh, hello," said Joyce smiling to the two of them before turning to Buffy, "Buffy, Rupert wants to talk to you for a second about our plans for tomorrow."

Joyce moved out of the way to let her daughter pass. This was an important moment for them, if the spell worked as they hoped the two men standing behind the social worker would lose interest in the room and move on, if not, Buffy and Giles were inside ready to fight their way out of the hospital with the kid.

Luckily, the two men only took a cursory glance inside and paid no attention to them anymore, they were now trying to take a look inside the room across the hall. Joyce let out a sigh of relieve, turning to the social worker once more.

"I'm so sorry, but I seem to have forgotten your name."

"I understand. It's not the best of circumstances to be introduced to someone. I'm Hallie." said the brunette, "Actually as I was saying to your daughter just a moment ago, I needed to go over a few details in the young man's file. I would have come sooner but this young man downstairs nearly knocked me down the stairs while waving a stick at me," the two men stood a little straighter while listening.

"Oh, my god, are you hurt?" asked Joyce concerned.

"No, I'm fine, thank you. It was the strangest thing; he was wearing one of those fancy private schools uniforms and had this wild look in his eyes, like he was running away or something..." Hallie stopped for a second as if she was thinking about something while discretely making sure she had the aurors attention, "but don't worry, I already notified security and got in contact with the mental ward. The kid was heading towards the back entrance anyway; they will begin a search inside the hospital and call the police to look around the streets. I'm sure the whole situation will be solved in no time."

"I'm sure," agreed Joyce moving out of the way and inviting the other woman in, the two men were hastily making their way to the stairs "and what can we do for you now?"

Inside the room a pale looking Harry was sitting on the bed talking softly to Giles while Buffy was sitting a few feet way from them watching 'Smallville' on the hospital TV set.

"Well, it's the strangest thing, half of his admission form is blank. I'm sure he had more information on him..." Muttered Hallie almost to herself showing an almost empty form inside her file, the other three from Sunnydale exchanged a relieved look between them.

Harry blinked and looked at Giles noticing the exchange between him and the women, he knew that form had been almost full that same morning with all the embarrassing details he wanted to forget about his life. Now, all he could see besides the form was another piece of paper behind it, but he couldn't read what was written on it.

"Well, we'll do our best to be of assistance," offered Giles with a gentle smile, "what do you need to know?"

"Thank you, let's start from the top, shall we?" said Hallie placing the file on the table and getting a pen out of her pocket, "What is your name?"

They all froze, they didn't think the spell would work that much… Harry didn't have a name?

"Lionel" stated Buffy, behind her Harry caught a glimpse of the American show. Didn't they have a character named Lionel in there? "his name is Lionel."

"Oh, you are a little lion, I see." Smiled Hallie and Harry decided that if Lionel really meant lion it was an ok name to have, "and I suppose your last name now will be Giles, since your aunt signed the forms giving up your guardianship?"

"Precisely." Giles jumped to the opportunity, of course, the doctors earlier at the pub said that his aunt was going to sign the damn thing. It was perfect.

"So your name is Lionel Giles? Correct?" asked Hallie.

"James," Harry made up his mind real quick, he wanted something to remember his real family by, "my full name is James Lionel Giles now."

"It's a lovely name," smiled Hallie, "and your address?"

"Yes, hmm, James will be living with us in America from now on. Let me write my address down for you." Giles offered taking the form and filling all the details he could.

"Perfect, thank you so much. I'll just file this with the hospital and give you the proper forms to request new documents to replace the ones lost in the accident."

"Thank you," said Harry and asked before Hallie was out of the room, "excuse, Hallie, do you know what happened to my clothes?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought they had told you already. They were pretty dirty from the accident, so an orderly took them down to the laundry room to get them cleaned before returning them to you, but apparently they were stolen. The hospital will provide you with a replacement."

"Thank you," said Harry feeling defeated. Now he was really stuck with these strangers. He had no wand and no clothes on top of everything.

The brunette left and they closed the door behind her. Now that they were alone it was time to get to know the new member of the family.

In the hallway, Hallie smiled to herself as she handed the manila file over to the nurse at the desk. Yes, the spell had done a good job, but they got a lot of help from her without knowing. She had covered the details the spell had left unattended and now Harry not only had a new magical signature but also a new family complete with all the legal documents he would ever need. She WAS good at what she did and Harry did wish for a place where no one knew him and for a misplaced file… well, he had a new one now. His old one was as misplaced as a file could get. She personally had send it to another dimension where the natives feed on paper.

Her idea to use the demons had been a bit risky though, but it had paid off in the end. The Americans did need the extra push in order to perform the ritual that would concealed Harry's magical signature from the Wizarding World, not to mention it was the perfect way to deliver the dagger fast enough and without raising too many questions. Now it was all done and Harry was safe to start his new life, just one more small detail for her to take care.

"I" thought Hallie as she disappeared from the hallway, "am extremely good in what I do."

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Sean Burns was a predator, he knew that. He had known his whole life. He was a wolf in a world full of sheep. His small stature was a drawback, sure, but it could be used to his advantage. He was 'Sweet Sean' for the older ladies who always preferred to hire him to do the odd jobs 'because he was such a good and honest boy', and if something went missing from their houses… well, old ladies do tend to misplace things right? No that he took that much, they had nothing worth taking.

He kept his nose clean in order to stay unnoticed, but that didn't mean he didn't know how to hunt and how to get his prey. He had done twice already, two boys from the streets. They had been… almost satisfying, but not quite. They were dirty and had no manners, never said 'thank you' or 'please' to him and they could curse like grown-ups. Not good.

He did try to teach them how to behave. The first one lasted almost three weeks before he lost his patience. It took him months to decide to take a new boy. Unfortunately, he knew the second one was a lost case in just five days. They were both still in his basement, carefully buried under the floor. No need to leave evidence just laying around.

He had been so frustrated when he realized he had to let the second one go too like he had done with the first. The boy simple refused to learn! It took him four months to finally understand. The ones from the street were no good, too much of street rats they were. He needed a sweeter boy, one raised properly in a house. Clean and sweet, with good manners and willing to learn.

It was when he decided to take Jonathan. He had seen the kid before, of course, playing around the neighborhood, smiling at everybody, displaying his body, tempting Sean and pretending he didn't know what he was doing. He had been asking for it!

Well, now Jonathan was his and he would teach the boy how to properly behave around him. Sure, he had to be a little rough at first, but it was for the boy's own good. Now it was time for the boy's first reward. Tonight he would make hamburgers for them and then he would make the boy sit on his lap so they could watch a few movies together.

Lost in his plans for the night, Sean almost didn't see the news cars passing by, but he certainly saw the police ones.

He cursed.

His front lawn was crawling with policemen and reporters. Even from as far away as he was he could see as Jonathan's parents came out of one of the cars and rushed inside. They were invading his house!

A few moments later the couple came back out with a bundle firmly wrapped in a blanket. They got inside an ambulance and drove away. They took Jonathan away. How dare they take what was his? This demanded a change in his plans. He had some money stashed away so he could make do for some time… and one of his old ladies had mention a cottage she had away from the city. He even had the spare key, taken just in case. Yes, that would work.

All he had to do now was to make a short visit to the hospital to take back what was his and he could be on his way to an idyllic getaway with his little Jonathan.

Everything went fine with his plan until Sean reached the children's ward at the hospital. A policeman who should be paying more attention to the cleavage on the bubbly headed nurse in front of him than anything else decided to play goof officer and was actually watching the halls. He spotted Sean as soon as he was five steps out of the elevator and raised the alarm.

It had taken Sean almost 15 minutes to lose his pursuers in the labyrinth of halls and staircases of the hospital, but he had to think of something fast if he wanted to get out of this one.

That was when he came upon the hospital laundry. There were a few packages among the piles and piles of bed sheets and towels. He grabbed the first one and dove into a closet. He was in luck, inside the package he found a school uniform. Complete with a red and gold tie. It seemed to be from one of those fancy Perfect. Nobody would suspect a rich kid in a school uniform.

He found out how wrong he was the second he stepped into the street. Two men came running after him, yelling for him to stop. He had no other choice but to start running again.

He ran as fast as he could but the men behind him didn't seem to be giving up anytime soon. Ducking into an empty alley, Sean made an extra effort to reach the busy street ahead. If he could make it, he would be able to disappear in the crowd and finally get sometime to think on his next move.

The men behind him were still yelling but he was able to put some distance between them. Sean was exhilarated, they would never be able to catch him now. A sudden blow on his back had him almost flying into the middle of the busy street.

'_Did I just got shot?_' Thought Sean still dizzy from the whole thing. He never saw the speeding bus coming his way.

Sean felt was a hard blow on his side, then a feeling of weightless and a sharp pain on his head followed by the sound of breaking glass. After that he felt nothing as his world slowly went dark.

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**A.N.:** No, as much as I want to, Sean is not dead. The little creep. He still has a minor role to play in the near future. Besides, why should Hallie be the only one getting revenge for little Jonathan? I'm entitle to some too, Am I not?


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Harry woke up to the sound of the door being thrown open as a tall man and a petite blond ran into the room.

"We have to get him out of here, there are at least two warlocks searching the floor for him," said the man as soon as they closed the door.

'_Warlocks? Does he mean wizards? He is a muggle and he knows about wizards? Wait, looking for me? I have to get out of here…_' thought Harry starting to panic, the other people in the room continue to talk, not noticing that he was awake.

"That is not good. There are three more demons downstairs. I think their boss wants the job done pretty bad." The little blond had a heavy American accent. She removed her jacket and gave it to the older woman, who put it in one of the shopping bags she had in a armchair.

'_Demons? What? Did the wizarding world finally lost it and sent dementors after me? and who are these people?_' Harry was getting more and more confused as he kept listening. At least these people, whoever they were, seemed to want to help him. It was a nice change of pace from the treatment he had received in the past few weeks.

"We must do something fast, we can't fight our way out of this hospital. It's too crowded to avoid hurting innocent bystanders, besides, we don't know if he can be moved." The man was saying.

"Can't we just hide for awhile?" asked the older woman, she also had an American accent.

"No, they got locater spells tracking the kid. They would find us anyway." Said the man.

'_Well, at least they seem to know what they are doing. But why are they helping me?_' Harry kept watching fascinated as these strangers walked around the room talking to each other. They had that easiness that indicated that they were used to working together and had done it quite a lot.

"The window is no good. Too high." Offered the girl looking out of it.

"The dagger" yelled the older woman. The other two looked at her and Harry's eyes went wide.

'_the what?_'

"You said it would mask the boy's identity. Couldn't we do something with it? I don't mean kill him, but…"

'_Well, thanks._'

"It might work." Said the girl.

"The risk…" started the man.

"It's better than certain death." Interrupted the older woman.

"But it's not that simple… h-h-he would need a new identity, not simply lose the old one."

'_Oh, they are considering a ritual…_' Harry finally put the pieces together.

"Adopt him." Come from the older woman.

"What?"

'_What?_'

"You said you wanted other kids, this one needs a chance and who better to deal with him if he turns out to be a menace than us?" reasoned the older woman handing the man a huge ceremonial dagger, "listen, we don't have the time to argue about this one. I know it's the right thing to do and it's his only chance!"

"Do it," said the girl walking out of the door, "Mom is right, we are his only chance right now and the only ones who can deal with it if he turns out to be one of the bad guys. You work on the spell and I'll stall whoever is coming."

"Joyce, It's not that simple. The kid might not want a new father. He is not even awake, I can simply tie him to me in a ritual. It… it's preposterous." The man tried to argue.

In the bed, Harry was doing some thinking of his own. From what he understood, there were two wizards coming his way and some 'demons', probably dementors, on their way as well. He had no friends left, everybody had betrayed him and his aunt was signing him away with a smile on her face. These people, even though they were strangers, were willing to adopt him into the family and give him a new chance. They didn't look like Death Eaters or evil doers of any sort. In fact, they had been in the same room with him while he was unconscious and he was still alive and well as far as he could see.

So, as far as he could see his choices were Azkaban and every witch and wizard in England hating him or a new chance with a spanking new identity and a family of his own. He didn't have to think long about this one.

"I think is a very good plan." He said softly from the bed. The two grown-ups spun around and looked at him.

"You're awake!" stated Giles.

"Hello, how are you feeling? Can I get you anything?" Joyce fussed over him.

"I'm fine, thank you. But I think you're right, we don't have much time and I agree with the ritual… if you want to do it, there is."

"Well, yes. I'm afraid we'll have to take a leap of faith here as we have no time to discuss the matter." Agreed Giles opening his button down shirt and making a shallow cut in his own hand with the dagger, "Joyce, if you would be so kind to lower his hospital gown, I need to have access to the skin over his heart."

He begun to chant in a language Harry had never heard before and a strange wind started to blow inside the room. Using his blood, Giles drew a symbol over Harry's heart and then repeated the process with Harry's blood over his own heart. A flash of light indicated that the ritual was completed and they hurried to put their clothes as they were before.

Joyce made sure everything looked like it should before opening the door and sending Buffy in. Harry caught a glimpse of two men who had 'Aurors' written all over them across the hall, but they only spared one brief glance inside the room before turning the other way. They didn't even see him! It was like their attention was totally focused someplace else or a notice-me-not spell had been cast on him.

Hallie came in with Joyce to ask a few questions for her files and now Harry was James Lionel Giles, adopted son of Rupert Giles and soon to be resident in Sunnydale California. Finally he would have a normal and quiet life.

Or so he thought.

----------

Report n. 7685.

July, 17. 1995.

Aurors McCommick and Tesh.

Subject: Harry Potter.

As ordered, our team proceeded to search every hospital in London for the whole day after the car crash leading to the prisoner escape, but found no trace of one Harry Potter in the first three hospitals visited.

Finally, half way into the afternoon we overheard an unidentified woman in hospital personnel garb saying a young man with the prisoner's description was trying to runaway from the hospital.

We ran downstairs just in time to see the young man in question flee through one of the doors. When we immediately went after him as fast as we could.

We can offer positive identification of the subject as it was observed that it was a black haired man in Hogwarts uniform, small built and very fast on his feet.

When yelled at to stop, the person in question only ran faster so we had to chase him in the muggle streets. Luckily, he didn't perform any magic.

The chase went on for a few minutes and the subject showed no intention of ever stopping or giving up. So when it was appropriate and out of the view of any muggles, Auror Tesh fired a light _expelliarmus _at the subject.

Due to his speed at the moment and the fact that he offered no resistance to the hex, the subject was propelled a few meters landing in front of a muggle bus, being subsequently hit by the said bus and thrown against the window of a street shop, receiving multiple cuts from the broken glass.

Outnumbered by muggles, our team had to stand aside and let the subject be taken back to the hospital he had run from and receive muggle medical attention. At the hospital, the subject was positively identified as Harry James Potter, patient of that hospital having been brought there after the car crash earlier mentioned in this report.

The subject received the attention of three muggle doctors and five nurses who manage to stabilize him enough for the time being. His injuries are described as massive cuts in the hands, upper arms and head, which include some disfigurement of his face, two broken ribs, broken arm (left), broken ankle (left) and multiple bruises.

He was later taken to an infirmary where it was possible to administer a few healing potions before transferring the prisoner, still unconscious for safety reasons, back to Azkaban. The prisoner is back in his cell and waiting for a new date to be taken before the Winzegamont.

We had the opportunity of reading his file at the hospital and it said that he had no previous injuries from aforementioned car crash and was only being held for observation while the social workers decided where he was to be taken, as his aunt was giving up on his guardianship.

Contacted by another team of aurors, Mrs. Petunia Dursley confirmed that information.

Case Closed.

End of report.

------------

In the next few days, Harry and his new family did a little shopping. Much to Buffy's delight, her new brother had nothing of his own and had to rely on her fashion sense to acquire everything. Harry felt like a life size doll and was quite vocal about it and Buffy simply ignored him and went on shopping. Rupert and Joyce couldn't stop laughing at their arguments.

The paperwork took a few days but the whole process was almost too easy, it was like someone was facilitating things for them. And since they were adopting a child together, Rupert and Joyce decided to take the final step and go back to US as a complete family.

They told Harry about the Slayer and Harry told them about the Wizarding World and how Voldemort was now back but nobody believed him. They all agreed that the best course of action right now was to contact a few of Giles old friends and have them monitor the situation for the time being, meanwhile Harry would go to US with his family and train with Giles and Buffy in order to be prepared if he ever decided to come back and get himself involved in the fight again.

They would not pressure him either way, it was totally up to him to return or not, after all, there was nothing saying that it was up to him to solve the mess of the wizarding world if he decided to stay away. Inside the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry of Magic, a small globe with a label reading 'Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter' sat quietly and undisturbed, gathering dust.

On July 28, 1995, Rupert Giles and Joyce Summers officially became Mr. and Mrs. Rupert Giles. It was the best birthday present ever for Harry.

One week into August, Giles and Joyce watched their two children sleeping on the plane back home feeling warm and at peace like everything was right in the world. Not once did they stop to consider that their wedding plans had been extremely hasty or that they had made the decision to adopt a child and done so in the same day. Nothing seemed out of place to them.

On the last row of seats, Halfrek contemplated her handiwork. Her latest plan came together without a hitch and another child was delivered from harm. Harry would have a much better life in US and receive all the training that he needed for the day he decided to return to England. Halfrek smiled and for the last time shimmered away. It would be another five years before Harry Potter was seen in England again.

---------

The Wizarding World had been in an uproar for the past weeks. It all started shortly before the end of the school year at Hogwarts when the boy-who-lived was driven insane by his fame and killed a school mate during the final task of the Triwizard Tournament.

He was immediately taken to a holding cell in Azkaban while the Ministry and Hogwarts staff tried to clean up the mess he made. Cedric Diggory was buried as a national hero and champion of the Triwizard Tournament. The Daily Prophet started a campaign, with plenty of photos of the Diggory family in tears over their dead son, for the Dementors Kiss and each day more and more witches and wizards showed their support for it.

The Ministry was in full swing claiming the Potter vaults and donating their contents to the orphanages created to house Voldemort's victims, everybody was just too busy being righteous to notice a small detour some of the money made into the account of the minister himself.

At Hogwarts, in the brief period before the students were let out for the summer, the teachers made long speeches to each one of their classes of how one should be mindful of the lure of the dark side and how easily it could corrupt. Ron and Hermione hurried to present themselves as the dramatic victims of an evil wizard and, Oh! How they had been innocent and naïve, offering their friendship to somebody who simply wanted to use them and how were they betrayed in the end.

The student body understood and didn't hold their innocence against them. They were all fooled by the evil boy-who-lived.

Even now with the new school year about to start in a few days, Albus Dumbledore sat in his office appalled with this whole situation. How could he have been so wrong? The boy fooled each and every one of them posing as a sweet little child while enjoying the glory of having defeated the dark lord. At least the little menace was back at Azkaban, where he belonged.

Sure, Sirius and Remus were giving him a bit of trouble, demanding that Harry was brought to trial as soon as possible. Sirius's experience with Azkaban was not the best one and of course he would see the similarities between his case and Harry's, but he had to understand that this time there was no mistake. Harry was guilty and would face the court; it was just a matter of time. Nobody was denying him a trial, like they did Sirius. The wizarding world was even demanding it.

No, there would be no mistakes this time.

----------

In Azkaban, Sean's sanity was fast slipping away. He had woken up to a much worse nightmare than the ones he had while sleeping, not the he could escape his new nightmare now even on his dreams. His days and nights were melting in one horrifying single thing from which he couldn't escape.

He had cried and called for his mother, for anyone, to come and take him away, but nobody come. Just those… shadows. The ones that made him feel cold and miserable. The ones that took his happy memories away.

Deep inside Azkaban, Sean Burns was slowly fading away.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Snape finally found himself able to leave the Dark Lord just a few days before the beginning of the school year. His whole summer had been spent playing nurse for Voldemort.

Ever since that fateful night, when his dark mark suddenly started to act out, he had been forced to stay at the Dark Lord's bed side pouring potions down his throat after being practically kidnapped from the school grounds by Malfoy and Avery. He had been virtually cut off from the outside world and since he was still playing the part of faithful Death Eater, he barely came up with an excuse to send a note to Dumbledore saying that he needed to go away for personal reasons and even then there had been no way of sending a warning of what was truly happening.

Still, he counted his blessings. Due to his weakness, Voldemort had been remarkably quiet and not a single raid or assassination had taken place, to be perfectly honest, the Dark Lord had slept most of the time, which made the fact that he could not offer frequent updates on the situation of Voldemort's return not as damaging as it could have been.

By his calculations, it would still be another four to six months before the Dark Lord felt strong enough to strike, it was only a small window of time, but at least they had _some_ time to prepare on top of the almost three months they already had. At least that Potter brat was useful for something, even if it was just to raise the alarm.

The potion master flooed into the Three Broomsticks in the middle of the afternoon. The place was empty as expected, being too late for lunch and too soon for the afternoon tea, which suited Snape just fine, he was in no mood for pleasantries and almost three months late for a conversation with the headmaster.

-----------

Twenty minutes later Snape finally reached the headmaster's office. Albus Dumbledore was there, surrounded by papers, books and gadgets as usual. He raised his head and looked at his potion master with curiosity.

"Severus, dear boy," he said smiling, "I didn't know you were back already. I trust you solved whatever problem you had."

"Whatever prob…" started Snape dumb folded, "Albus, are you telling me that Potter didn't tell you? I always told you that brat was too big headed for his own good but you never listened to me and now he lost us precious weeks of preparations."

"Severus, what are you talking about?" Dumbledore look genuinely surprised.

"The Dark Lord! Didn't Potter tell anyone that he was back? What was that child thinking? He probably wants to go after him alone like he has done with whatever problem he has faced ever since he came to school. I told you, Albus, I told you that he needed to be firmly guided and not coddled like you did. Mark my words, that brat will find himself in more trouble than he can handle sooner rather than later and then I want to see…" Snape finally noticed the look of utter shock in his mentor's face and mistook it for apprehension with the Dark Lord's return, "I'm sorry, I got carried away. It doesn't matter that the child said nothing, we still have some time to prepare, granted is not as much as it could have been but…"

"Harry Potter is in Azkaban," said Dumbledore still shaken.

"What?" Snape nearly fell with the news, "What ever for?"

"The murder of Cedric Diggory," informed Dumbledore.

"But… Wormtail killed Diggory. Didn't Potter tell you that?"

"He did. He also informed us of Voldemort's return," Dumbledore's expression was near desperation now, "but we didn't believe him. Not one of us and… we… I…" he couldn't go on. The enormity of the betrayal he had committed weighed heavily on him. The look of utter disbelief and betrayal that Harry had on his face came back full force on his memory. The look of an innocent child being abandoned by everyone he trusted.

"Good lord, what have we done?" Sighed Dumbledore. How did that happen? Why did he believe, even for a second, that Harry had been capable of such a thing? He _knew_ Harry would never murder another person in cold blood, and yet…

Snape's legs gave up from under him and he fell onto one of the armchairs. A wave of dizziness took over and his world spun, he never thought things could have gotten so out of hand in the time he was away. It was worse than anything he could ever imagine.

When he finally got himself under control again the headmaster was fastening his cloak around his shoulders. A determined look on his face.

"I'm going to the Ministry, I must speak with Fudge at once."

"I'm going with you," offered Snape also getting up, "you might need a witness to make that pompous fool believe in all this."

"I'm afraid I must decline your offer, my boy. The Dark Lord still has eyes and ears in the Ministry. Your presence at my side would only compromise your position as a spy and Fudge still wouldn't listen."

Snape acquiesced, he knew Dumbledore was right, and without any further delays, Dumbledore left the office to try and fix the biggest mistake in the Wizarding World he could remember.

-------------

Putting the matter to right, however, proved to be easier said than done. Fudge simply wouldn't budge, refusing to even discuss the possibility of a mistake or the return of the Dark Lord.

Dumbledore finally had enough and snapped at him. The old wizard seemed to grow in stature and the air around him cracked with power, his face was dark and grave in his anger. That certainly caught the minister's attention.

"DO NOT THINK OF ME AS AN ATTENTION SEEKING FOOL, CORNELIUS!" the white haired wizard said in a booming voice before adding in a more conciliatory tone, "This is not the time to pretend the world is as we want. Our enemy has returned and Harry Potter is our only chance of ever seeing the end of this threat."

Fudge did some fast thinking, he had pulled all stops in order to get to the boy's money and only the fact that he had no magical relatives left had allowed him to do so. The Minister shuddered thinking about the Black estates, it was too bad that when Sirius Black had gone to Azkaban his mother was still alive and he had missed the opportunity of seizing that nice pile of gold as well and now it would seem all too suspicious to do so.

The Potter estate, however, was a different matter. There was no one to file a complaint about what would happen to the money and as far as the public knew it went all to charity. If he declared the boy innocent now he would have to give back what he had taken… and the fact that part of that money had ended up in his account would come to light. No, that could not happen.

"Oh, please. Dumbledore," he tried another approach, "even if all that was true, and there is no evidence that it is, mind you. What could a mere boy do against one so powerful as you-know-who? I'll tell you what, find me the prove of this allegations and we'll talk again, until then, there is nothing that I can do for the boy."

"Cornelius, you seriously…"

"There is no evidence of HIS return. There is no evidence of foul play. Even you agreed that sending the boy to Azkaban was the right thing to do at the time. Nothing has changed, Dumbledore, there are no new deaths, no dark mark floating anywhere, no death eaters raid. All I have is the dead body of one student and Potter was the only one around him at the time of death. Any fool can see…"

"And that fool would be mistaken," interrupted Dumbledore, "I'm telling you, Cornelius. Severus Snape can show you his arm. The mark is back, he is back! And the longer we take to remove Harry from Azkaban the longer it will take for him to recover. We must do it now. Release him under my care, I'll vouch for him but Get. Him. Out. Of. There."

"Now, now, Dumbledore, you know that without due process…" Fudge offered a patronizing smile but Dumbledore interrupted him again.

"Then what you suggest is that we wait for another two weeks until the scheduled public trial takes place and risk an even greater scandal than the one we already got on our hands. Is that it?" baited Dumbledore, knowing full well how much Fudge would hate to look like a fool in front of the whole Wizarding World.

That made Fudge pause. He hadn't taken in account the trial already scheduled and there was no way the public would let that one go. This could very well be the end of his career.

"Perhaps you're right, Dumbledore," he agreed nervously, "I'll schedule a preliminary hearing for the boy tomorrow, maybe even later today, and we'll ask him a few questions with Veritasserum. We'll decide what to do depending on his answers."

Fudge reached for the door to call his secretary, but Dumbledore stepped in his way.

"I think," the older wizard said wisely, "that due to the sensitive nature of this matter, that a more discreet way to go about it should be employed."

"What do you mean?" blinked Fudge confused.

"If we were to bring Harry here to be questioned, the information could find its way in to the Dark Lord's ear and Harry's security would be compromised."

"What are you suggesting, Dumbledore?" asked Fudge narrowing his eyes.

"My suggestion is this, instead of bringing Harry here and creating a potentially dangerous situation, we should be the ones going there, along with a select group of people we might need," proposed Dumbledore.

"And who exactly do you think 'we might need' for this?" asked Fudge suspiciously, he was convinced it was all a plot from Dumbledore to make him look like a fool and take over the Ministry… maybe he was even considering aiding Potter in running away!

"One or two aurors, a mediwizard capable of administering Veritaserum… and the two of us, of course." Answered Dumbledore easily.

"Of course… it makes sense," Fudge was forced to agree. "Fine, we'll go first thing in the morning."

"Perfect, I'll see you in the morning, Cornelius. Now, if you excuse me. I have to make arrangements for the night." And with that, Dumbledore left the Ministry. He still needed to have one difficult conversation that day before doing what he should have done months ago, or would have done if he was not so adamant in sending an innocent boy to prison. It was time to re-activate the Order of the Phoenix.

---------------

"I TOLD YOU HE WAS INNOCENT!" roared Sirius. Remus was barely able to hold his friend back so he wouldn't tackle their old headmaster to the ground.

"As a matter of fact," Dumbledore started in his most gentle voice, "You didn't."

"What?" both Sirius and Remus were facing the headmaster now with deep scowls on their faces, "What are you going on about, old man? Of course I did, I told you from day one that my godson would never kill another person."

"Did you really, Sirius? or even you, Remus, by any chance?" asked the headmaster looking them in their eyes, "Or did you just demand a trial? Claiming that no matter what, everyone deserved a fair trial. Don't you find it strange that even you two never uttered the word 'innocent' this whole time?"

"I…" Sirius stopped dead in his tracks, thinking about the previous weeks. His eyes went wide when the truth finally sank in. He hadn't, not once, claimed that Harry was innocent. How could he have done that?

"We didn't," murmured Remus and then continued a bit louder, "not once the possibility of Harry being innocent crossed our minds. We just wanted the trial because of Sirius… but… how? He IS innocent. I know he is innocent. Harry would never…"

"I know," Dumbledore said raising his hand to halt Remus tirade, "I firmly believe that Harry would never kill in cold blood. I _know _he is not capable of it and that he is indeed innocent of this tragedy, yet I spent the last two months devastated by the fact that Harry was a murder."

"How could we all believe that?" asked Sirius chocked.

Remus sat heavily on the couch with his head on his hands. The past few weeks replaying in his mind while he went over all the small details he hadn't paid attention to before. Dumbledore was right. They had been convinced that Harry was guilty, but how? It simply didn't add up. Everybody had firmly believed, people that knew Harry, that knew he wouldn't do something like that and should believe him no matter what, even if he said that…

"Voldemort is back!" he yelled jumping to his feet, "Harry said that Voldemort is back and we let that go unchecked for two months!"

"I know, my boy," sighed Dumbledore, "and that might as well be our explanation. Voldemort must have found a spell that made us not believe Harry."

"But how did he get all of us at the same time?" asked Sirius confused.

"He didn't," pondered Remus, "it would be impossible to get that many people at once and even if he could do it, the two of us were hiding. He had no access to us."

"Remus is right," Dumbledore added, "he could have placed the spell on Harry himself…"

"But how were Sirius and I affected?" asked Remus, "It makes no sense, to have such wide and strong effect the power behind that spell would have to be…"

Dumbledore sat down, pondering about this. Remus was right, of course, only an extremely powerful wizard could _try_ such spell and chances were he would not be able to do it. Too many variables, too many people spread over too many places to be affected at once and, according to Severus, Voldemort was back, sure, but seriously debilitated, not improved and stronger.

If there was any difference on him, he was weaker, not stronger, and he wouldn't be able to do something like this not even before his original body was destroyed. Was there a new force on this war? Dumbledore couldn't help the shiver that ran down his back and hoped they were not too late to rescue Harry before something permanent happened.

"Gentlemen," he forced himself to the things they _could_ do, they were helping no one sitting around feeling sorry for the past few weeks, "unfortunately, there is nothing we can do for Harry right now, tomorrow I'll go to Azkaban with Cornelius Fudge and do everything in my powers to bring him back with me, until then we must start preparing for the times ahead. Sirius, I'd like your permission to gather the old crowd here. We really have no time to lose."

"Yes, of course, Albus. Maybe not all of them will be able to attend in such short notice but you're right, we have to call them as soon as possible."

The three men spent the rest of the afternoon writing notes to be delivered by owls and making fire calls. Surprisingly enough, all of those who knew Harry seemed to be expecting the call and they all mentioned a vague feeling of knowing that something was wrong but they couldn't put their fingers on it.

---------------

**Author's note:**

Well, just one thing.

The scene between Dumbledore and Fudge is a total homage to Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings) when, in the movie, he is yelling at Bilbo, saying he is not to be taken as conjurer of cheap tricks.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Emotions were running high at 12 Grimmauld Place that night. Snape was able to attend after he spent a few hours resting and was sitting at the table, not his favorite place, he would rather be at the corner and not attract any attention, alas tonight that was not a possibility.

Albus Dumbledore stood at the head of the large dinner table and took a look around the room. The Weasleys were uncharacteristically quiet and everybody could understand that, Harry had been like another member of the family and they hadn't even blinked before turning on him. McGonagall was pale and shaking, she hadn't said a word for the past five minutes and Amelia Bones was doing her best to calm the poor woman who couldn't understand why she had behaved towards Harry like she did.

Remus and Sirius were talking quietly in one corner, not sitting at the table like usual. They were also unusually quiet and it was a testimony of how affected they were that the two of them had greeted Snape when he came in.

Dumbledore sighed; he could understand the odd behaviors from his friends. When he told them about Voldemort's return it was like a light had gone on behind their eyes. They all started to demand Harry's release from Azkaban and none of them could understand what had convinced them that Harry was guilty in the first place. Not a single one of them believed in Harry's guilt anymore.

Tonks, Moody, Shacklebolt, Flitwick and a few others were tossing theories back and forth of what kind of spell could have such wide effect and so far they had come up with nothing. The sheer amount of power needed was ludicrous, too ludicrous to even be considered possible, there had to be another explanation. To Dumbledore that was a small relief for it meant that there was no new power sided with the Dark Lord, still not knowing was… unsettling to say the least.

"Headmaster," called Arthur Weasley, "what is being done to release Harry?"

"Tomorrow I'll go to Azkaban with the Minister and a couple of aurors to ask a few questions to Harry under Veritaserum. Once the necessary proof of Harry's innocence is acquired I'll demand his release under my custody and bring him here where Poppy and Severus will be waiting with all the necessary potions and care. Hopefully Harry will be well enough to return to Hogwarts on the first of September."

"Is that wise?" asked Arthur, "I mean we are already at the end of August, it's not a lot of time for him to recover."

"I know," sighed Dumbledore, "but Harry has been locked in that horrible place since the end of June and he will need a lighter atmosphere to recover. At Hogwarts he will be surrounded by people his own age and will have lots of space and fresh air. Besides, even with all that has happen, Hogwarts still is the safest place for him."

"And that is what worries me," muttered Tonks. She looked around to see questioning looks directed at her, "Hogwarts is the safest place for him and look at all that has happened there to him so far. That kid has the worse luck."

Dumbledore really had no reply to that.

----------

Fate's twisted sense of humor made itself known the next day through the weather. It was a beautiful sunny day, the kind of day that led you to believe that the summer could last forever and didn't reflect at all the mood of the small group who gathered at a seemly abandoned pier to wait for the boat that would take them to the island where Azkaban was built. Less then twenty minutes later a medium size gray boat approached the shore and the group quietly boarded.

Fudge was nervously shifting from one foot to another. He had just received the news that would be almost impossible for him to replace the money he had 'borrowed' from Potter's vault since he had already spent most of it. He was still glad that all he had been able to obtain had come solely from the trust fund the Potter family had established for its heir. The goblins had some stupid rules about not releasing the family vaults while it was still possible for a family member to be alive, even so, he found himself in need to give back a lot of money.

Dumbledore was quiet. The old wizard was lost in thoughts still trying to understand how could he have done such a horrible thing to a boy he loved as member of the family. More importantly, would that happen again? Since they had no idea of what happened there was no way to prevent it from ever happening again and that could cost them the war… if it hadn't cost it already.

Healer Ethan Derwent was not happy either. It was his third visit to Azkaban and he knew what was ahead. He hated everything about it, the boat ride where he always got sick, the almost bare island with some sorry looking trees in the distance, the dementor's presence lurking just out of eye sight, the damp corridors, the filthy cells, the insane inmates and the nightmares he was sure to have later at night. No, he was not a happy healer that morning and his mood only got worse as a wave of nausea hit him.

Aurors Tonks, Savage and Shacklebolt kept their thought to themselves and tried to concentrate in doing their jobs. Their stony expression was the only indication of how uncomfortable they were to be there.

The trip always seemed to be over too quickly as no one was ever anxious to reach the gloomy island and today was no exception to that rule. The group proceeded to the dark wooden gates where they were met by one of the few human guards of the place who let them in.

The same guard led them through the maze of dark corridors until they were standing in front of an old and rusty set of bars. On the other side, sitting in a corner and covered in filth a small figure muttered constantly nonsense and showed no signs of noticing them.

"Harry," called Dumbledore, "Harry, my boy, look at me. It's Albus Dumbledore, son, how are you?"

The figure inside the cell paid no attention to the old man and continued to mutter to himself, rocking back and forth on his corner.

"He seems very affected by his stay here," Derwent said feeling a bit stupid for stating the obvious but anxious to get things moving so he could get out of the island, he turned to one of the aurors who had come with them, "open his cell so I can make a proper evaluation of his condition."

The noise of the bars swinging open sounded exceptionally high in the dark corridor and a few of the inmates started to laugh and yell. The group tried not to pay attention to it and concentrate on the boy inside the cell they were about to enter. His clothes were torn and filthy and they couldn't even see his skin under all the grime.

A few _scourgify_ spells later the healer was ready to begin his work.

"He is malnourished, quite a few cuts are infected and I can detect a few mended bones – badly mended bones, I might add. What did they do? Toss him in his cell to heal by himself?"

Nobody answered that one, the aurors however had the strong suspicion that that was almost exactly what had happened. Fudge noticed that Dumbledore looked crestfallen.

"I'm sure they provided some _Skele-gro_ if he needed." Offered Tonks.

"Yes, they did," added Savage, "It's right here in the prison log."

"That can't be right," said Derwent still checking the prisoner over, "there is no sign of accelerated mending."

"Could it have been a faulty potion?" asked Fudge worried about this new development, the Ministry could not do with the extra bad publicity if they really did neglect an innocent prisoner.

"It's possible," agreed Derwent looking at the nearly unconscious prisoner's face, "but we should really do something about all these scars on his face, I'm not sure I can even get rid of them now, after so long, but they still need treatment as they are severely infected."

The healer rummaged through his pockets and produced a dozen vials of potions. They moved the poor boy to the small cot in the cell and started to pour the potions down his throat. The boy was completely unresponsive.

"That is enough," the healer said to the aurors helping him, "let him rest for a few minutes while the potions take effect."

Dumbledore produced a blanket and covered the raven-haired prisoner before retreating to the corridor with Fudge. They had a few minutes to wait. The aurors split up, with two of them remaining with the healer, Fudge and Dumbledore and one going to the check the prison files for information on the potions they had.

Fudge looked around making sure nobody was listening to them, the healer was writing his patient's progress on a parchment and the aurors were a bit further down the corridor. They all looked far away enough and seemed to be paying attention to something else. It was high time he had some answers.

"Very well, Albus," Fudge said keeping his voice just above a whisper so no one else heard them, "I did all you've asked me to do. We are here with the aurors, the healer and the Veritaserum you asked for. Now, why don't you tell me what is this really all about?"

"The boy is an innocent child, Cornelius, I was hoping to right a wrong done to him and bring him back to his family today, but he is far more affected by this place than I expected. It may take a long time for him to recover, a time I don't know if we have."

"What do you mean 'a time you don't know if we have'? If the brat is innocent we take him to St. Mungu's. It's tragic that he lost his mind but it is not the end of the world."

Dumbledore paused for a minute looking at Fudge intensely as if he was considering something and then sighed, making up his mind.

"Cornelius, there is something you need to know about Harry Potter and Voldemort…" pulling the minister closer to him Dumbledore made sure to cast a silencing spell around them and proceeded to tell him about the Prophesy. There was no point in hiding from the minister now as they would have to… go around a few laws in order to help Harry.

Cornelius Fudge was a coward and he knew that, he also knew he was not the wisest or most prepared man for his job; that was why he feared Dumbledore so much. He feared there would be a day where the old wizard would simply demand the position of Minister of Magic and he would be booted out of the office, now that sounded like the best case scenario.

If what Dumbledore was telling him was true, they could have just lost the war before the dammed thing had even begun and as Minister of Magic he was just a big fat target sitting right on the line of sight for the whole world to see. There was no question about it, the Potter kid had to be cured… and fast. Putting on his best political smile he patted Dumbledore on the shoulder in what he thought it was a reassuring manner.

"Albus, don't be so pessimist. Healer Derwent is very good at what he does, I'm sure Harry will be back to his normal charming self in no time. You'll see." Fudge tried to hurry back into the cell, the Potter boy's mental health was suddenly a much more important matter that it had been just five minutes ago, but Dumbledore seized his arm holding him in place surprisingly easily for a man of such an advanced age.

"Let's hope you are right, Cornelius, but there is a small matter left to resolve."

"Oh, really? What is it?" a sudden chill ran down Fudge's back when he looked at Dumbledore's stern face.

"I'll need a wizard's oath from you, Cornelius, that nothing of what I just told you will be repeated – ever!" Dumbledore demanded very seriously.

"Oh, of course. Of course," relaxed Fudge pulling out his wand, an oath was a reasonable thing to ask under the circumstances.

----------

Healer Derwent checked the results of his spells again, the potions were not working. The boy was no more healed now than he was before he took the potions. Something was very wrong here and it was not the potions, he had checked them all this morning. A small suspicion started to grow in his mind, it was not the first time a potion had fail to work on this particular patient, one time could be something wrong with the potion, twice could be coincidence but more than that could only mean one thing, there was something wrong with the patient.

Derwent pulled his wand again, this time to cast a whole different set of spell on his patient. The results he got left no margin for error. There was no magic on his patient, none what so ever.

"Minister, I believe we have a situation here," Derwent called the attention of the two men outside the cell.

"What is it, Derwent?" asked Fudge with an oily smile, Merlin, how he hated politicians.

"Is there a problem with your potions, Healer Derwent?" asked Dumbledore in a more polite manner.

"Not with the potions, sir, they are fine." Started Derwent a bit worried how these two powerful figures would react to the news he had, "It's the boy. He is not magical."

"Somebody ripped Potter's magic?" yelled Fudge paling, "Who turned him into a squib?"

"Not a squib, sir," Derwent hurried to explain, "this person, whomever he is, was never a wizard. That is why the potions are not working on him and he is so affected after so little time in Azkaban, this boy is a muggle."

Dumbledore hurried to the cot and started casting spells of his own on the boy. All of his readings confirmed what the healer had just said, this boy was not Harry.

"How did this happen?" he asked the aurors. Shacklebolt was checking the copy of Harry's file he had in his hands.

"This boy was seen leaving the hospital where Potter was suspected of being, he was wearing Potter's clothes and ran when the aurors told him to stop. He was chased for a few blocks before being hit with a stunner which unfortunately put him on the path of a speeding bus that hit him and threw him on a large window, rendering him unconscious. That is where his cuts came from I suppose. Then he was taken to the same muggle hospital where he had run from and identified as Potter… I believe it was because of his clothes and no one was able to see the mistake because his face was so heavily damaged. He was taken still unconscious back to Azkaban and no one has come to check on him again."

"So…" Fudge said slowly putting together the pieces of information he had just heard, "Potter was never recovered after the car crash. Is that it?"

"Yes," answered Dumbledore, "Harry is still out there running from us and we have no way of telling him that he has to come back, he would never trust us enough to do it anyway."

"Not to mention that he is still wanted for murder," muttered Tonks.

"We can't let anybody know of this," said Fudge. His mind working out all the new complications they would have to deal with now. Potter was not about to come back, he had nothing left in the Wizarding World and if anybody spotted him they would curse first and call the aurors later to receive the reward. The Dark Lord would also be pleased to know that Potter was out there defenseless. No, nobody could know about Potter not being there. But what about the trial?

It was a nightmare, the only plus side was that now he had more time to replace the money but still, there was an innocent under age wizard on the run charged with murder and as the Minister of Magic it would be his fault. Once the wizarding world got wind of how their precious savior was thrown in Azkaban they would want Fudge's head on a pike. Fudge started to feel sick.

"The Minister is right," agreed Dumbledore with his best I-am-a-teacher-and-you-better-listen-to-me voice, "It would only cause panic if the news of Harry's disappearance was divulged. The general public would never believe that he is innocent or if they did they would panic because Voldemort is back. No, we have to work in secret to find Harry and bring him back. Once he is back we use Veritaserum on him, clear his name and do our best to get him to forgive us. Meanwhile, we have a dark lord to fight."

While Derwent and the aurors were preparing the mysterious muggle to be transferred to St. Mungu's; Fudge and Dumbledore hastily made plans of who would know about Harry being gone, what to do to find him and how to prepare to fight Voldemort.

Their only hope was that they could find Harry soon, before it became too late to save the Wizarding World.

-------------

**Author's note:**

Coming soon – Draco's POV, Sunnydale, Anya's POV and much, much more…

Gee, didn't that sounded just like one of those sleazy adult shows?

**One more thing:** Sorry if I'm not answerign your reviews - I'm simply not getting the mails to learn about them and sometimes I don't have time to come and check myself. I'm sure it will all work out in the end, it will just take a little bit more time.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

James Lionel Giles could feel the creature gaining terrain. More than one if the growling was anything to go by, but he couldn't tell how many.

Not good.

He had been running as fast as he could the whole time and it seemed it was not enough this time, the fact that he could not use his arms was also a problem but he gone through a lot of trouble to get these darn things and he was not going to waste all the time and effort he had put into it. There was no denying the fact, he had been careless and he should know better but the graveyard _was_ the shortest way and he had been in a hurry.

Diving behind a stone mausoleum James placed his precious cargo on the ground and withdrew a wooden stake from his jacket. His only chance was to be quick about it or he would be in a world of trouble and that was something he could not afford right now.

He let the first vampire pass him by and waited a few more seconds before making his move. He had been right, there were three of them. Newbies, judging by the look of their clothes. A quick check made sure there were no more vamps coming their way, one against three, fair enough.

James jumped on the biggest guy's back and staked him before the vampire knew what was going on and used his momentum to land a flying kick on the next one, throwing him off balance.

The one that looked like the leader of their little pack charged at James, but a side step made him grab only air and receive a stake through the heart for all his trouble. The third one decided that perhaps their intended defenseless victim was not as defenseless as they originally thought and tried to make a run for it. James had no trouble staking him on the back and turning him into dust.

A quick check made sure the problem was taken care of and James hurried to retrieve his cargo and run into the much more illuminated street a few meters away. One minute later he was entering the art gallery where his parents and older sister were waiting for him.

"Ok," he said putting the cardboard tray on the table, "one extra strong cup of plain tea for dad, a double mochaccino with cream for Buffy, mom wanted a Turkish apple tea, my hot chocolate with almonds and… donuts and butter croissants all around… did I forget something?"

"No, honey. It's perfect," smiled Joyce taking her tea and a croissant.

"Just…" said Giles quietly as he stepped up to James and brushed dust from his jacket, "make sure to cover your tracks before your mother sees it."

"Hey," Buffy complained, "How come James gets to slay tonight and I get to be Gallery Buffy?"

"Because _I_ got to be the one who was sent into the not so gentle night for coffee… and because I took a short cut through the cemetery on the way back from the Espresso Pump." Answered James teasingly.

"Not fair!" Buffy pouted and James answered by sticking his tongue out.

"Yes, let's all be mature about it, shall we?" smirked Giles sipping his beverage almost recognizable as tea. Family life seemed to agree with him, with all of them, really.

Buffy was a bit more ready to share even when it came to feelings, James was more trusting of grown ups (Joyce and Giles mostly, but he didn't view all adults as hell spawns like he used to at first), Joyce was the figure of motherly bliss and Giles felt like the world was right again, like he once more had a purpose in life.

It all had happen a little over a year ago on their trip to England. They found James, who at the time was called Harry Potter, laying on a hospital bed ready to be slaughtered by two demons and a lot had happened ever since.

Giles allowed himself to get lost in the memories of the past few months.

It had been Buffy's first year in college and, as expected from a girl who didn't think she would live to graduate from high school, she had a few problems adjusting. New environment, new rules, access to alcohol – which they were carefully not bringing up around Joyce after the cavemen incident and a new boyfriend, Riley Finn, a soldier this time… well, at least he had a pulse and Joyce did approve of him, so it was alright even if Giles's brand new parental instincts were telling him to read the huge soldier the riot act.

It had also been James's first year in the US, not to mention the Hellmouth with all its charms. They had decided that it would be better if James attended a normal high school instead of a magical one to make sure nobody could recognize him as Harry Potter and continue his magical education at home, like most American witches did. Thank heavens he was adapting well to wandless magic, and becoming quite proficient too. He and Willow would spend days working on spells, not that it worked all the time, but they were improving and now they also had Willow's girlfriend, Tara, who was also a witch and a much more level headed one to keep them from doing anything too foolish… or so everybody hoped.

Tara was a new acquisition to their gang after Willow and Oz's painful breakup over the after effects of a female werewolf in Oz's life. He left to find a way to control the wolf inside him and broke Willow's heart… and of course she did a spell to try to mend it and almost got everybody killed, Joyce with a heart attack over Buffy's engagement to a vampire, and not any vampire but Spike himself for that matter.

By the time Oz did come back with a cure for his lycanthropy Willow and Tara were together and he got so mad that he turned into a werewolf in broad day light and got himself captured by the Initiative, the military group who was trying to 'study' demons. The scoobies barely got him out and he decided to leave for good.

James was devastated, he and the small werewolf had became fast friends as soon as they saw each other, the fact that James did know a werewolf in UK and liked the man created a strong bond between them. James had been unofficially added as a member to Oz's band and was learning to play the guitar, with Oz gone that became more and more rare. James was still learning to play, now with Giles, but his band days were not was fun as they used to be.

On the plus side, Giles pondered, James now had the cure for lycanthropy. Only he didn't know how to send it to his wizard friend, Remus something, without announcing to the whole wizarding world where he was. So the cure just sat there written in one of James's many research notebooks waiting for the day James could be reunited with his friends.

Giles was also teaching James how to fight after a few close encounters with some of the Hellmouth's finest, even Joyce would join them training every now and again, she was still mad at the Chumash tribe who decided to pay a visit at Thanksgiving and trashed the dining room breaking her family heirloom dinner set. The joys of having a slayer in the family.

His fighting skills were definitely handy in their last major battle, the boy was a natural with a sword in his hands. James insisted on going with them into the Initiative's secret lab to help fight Adam and was the one responsible for keeping them safe while all the others were defenseless because of the spell they were casting. Thankfully the merge was successful and Buffy was able to destroy Adam just in time. Apocalypse averted once more.

Giles watched his children discuss a painting on the other side of the gallery. His children. He felt his chest swell with pride. He had always secretly thought of Buffy as his child and was very proud of the woman she was becoming. She was still aggravating as only a teenager could be and her logic was... out worldly at best, but he loved her with all his heart.

The gallery door opening snapped him out of his thoughts. The scoobies were here, they were going to The Bronze tonight. Willow bounced towards Buffy with a blinding smile on her face still showing glimpses of the girl he had met four years earlier in the former high school library. Tara followed her in her customary more sedated pace. Right behind them Xander held the door open for his girlfriend, Anya.

Now, there was someone Giles didn't know how to react to. Anya was an ex-Vengeance Demon who had show up in Sunnydale while the gang was still in high school and lured Willow into performing a spell with her to 'regain her power center', as she had put it. Of course it went terribly wrong and a vampire Willow from a parallel dimension got to spend some quality time in town.

They solved that problem and eventually got some information from her that helped them defeat the mayor turned demon before she skipped out of town just before graduation. Eventually she came back and somehow, he really didn't want to find out how, started dating Xander. They seemed to be getting along just fine until she met James and her part in all of his problems came to light. It took a few days to work everything out between them but the gang was all back together again.

It had happened a few months ago…

--- Flashback ---

ANYA'S POV

Anya paced in the sidewalk in front of the slayer's house. She didn't remember being this worried about something in over 975 years, ever since she was supposed to be a bridesmaid in a wedding and ended up in the wrong hell dimension making out with this demon that she later found out to be the groom, that was embarrassing… but then she offered her services as a Vengeance Demon to the bride and they remained good friends afterwards. The groom died in misery and pain, of course.

Anya continued to pace and added twisting her hands for good measure. This was almost ridiculous, she had been a Vengeance Demon for over 1100 years. She had brought pain and horrible death to men on all five continents and at least 37 different dimensions… and right now she was burning the soles of her favorite expensive shoes on a human sidewalk because these stupid human emotions inside her were demanding that she come clean with the wish she had performed just before coming to Sunnydale.

How was she supposed to know that her former victim would end up being Xander's friend's little brother?

Taking a deep breath Anya went up to the front door and knocked. Xander opened the door, they had talked about this and he was the one that told her it was important to come clean and how that would make her a better human being and all that. He put an arm around her shoulders and led her into the living room. Everybody was already there.

"Hm… excuse me," called Xander, "We... err… well, Anya and I… there is something you should know."

Joyce sat on the couch, where Willow was already browsing through a few new books Giles had ordered. Buffy and James were sitting on the floor polishing their weapons after a long training session that afternoon and Giles sat on the armchair with a hot cup of tea.

"What is it, Xander?" asked Willow frowning and then lighting up with a smile as she noticed their clasped hands, "Oh, Goddess, are you two engaged?"

"What? No…" stammered Xander in a hurry only to be overwhelmed by the hurt look on Anya's face, "too soon, I mean, we've just started to go out and… I mean, that is not it. Go on, An."

"Oh, yes," said Anya remembering what they were there to do, "you all remember how I used to be a Vengeance Demon, right?"

Everybody in the room nodded, not knowing where the awkward ex-demon was getting at.

"Well, just before I came to Sunnydale and Giles from the parallel dimension managed to burst my power center, I was summoned to this other job. Which was weird because I didn't get summoned frequently, I just felt the pain of a scorned woman and went to her aid to do her bidding…"

"Anya," interrupted Xander, "get to the point."

"Oh, the point is that I was called to this magic school by a witch and she said: '_Merlin, I wish Harry Potter would find out what is like to be betrayed and abandoned by those he loves, to lose everything. I wish they would throw him in Azkaban. I wish he was out of my way for good_.' So I did it and I turned every single one of his friends against him and he was sent to prison."

"Who called you? And why?" asked Buffy shocked, "I mean you came here because of Cordelia and Xander. Who was in… pig's mole school?"

"Hogwarts," corrected James

"That one," agreed Buffy, "who had it in for Jam…Harry bad enough to summon a Vengeance Demon?"

"How much time do you have?" asked James, "In my forth year the whole school turned against me at one point. They were all mad because they believed I was taking Cedric's rightful position as Hogwarts's Champion."

"Oh, no," Anya hurried to set the matter straight, "She never mentioned any Cedric. The name she said was Draco. You were taking her rightful position with Draco and that is why she wished for you to know what it was like to be betrayed and that was what I delivered."

"So… my friends don't hate me?" asked James looking slightly ill.

"No, that would be my doing," answered Anya with just a bit of professional pride showing on her face. She was still waiting for the moment the yelling would begin.

"All the things they said to me…"

"All me again," Anya chipped in, "not the actual words, of course, but the general feeling behind it."

"They didn't betray me," James's face clearly showed how shocked he was, "It was a spell, they didn't betray me. I can call them…"

"Well, technically you are still wanted for murder," said Anya helpfully, "I nudged their emotions but the paper work was not me."

James looked at her like he had just been doused with a bucket of ice water. Giles noticed that and hurried to his aid.

"Well… yes, there is the matter of clearing Jam… I mean, Harry Potter's name and it may take a while for us to gather all the evidence we'll need, but at least now we know that your friends will stand by your side in the courtroom. Do you have any idea who this mysterious witch could be?"

"Yes, I do," James felt like laughing, he would never have guessed that of all people she was the root of this whole mess, "Pansy Parkinson. Draco Malfoy's wanna-be fiancée . Draco and I… we were… they were not engaged."

"I know, we figured it out once I went back home and the debt was checked over," Anya informed, "but now you know. I came clean and helped you. Right?"

"Yes, yes, you're absolutely right," concurred James before turning to Anya again and pulling her in a bone crashing hug. "Thank you, thank you. You have no idea what this means for me."

"Good," Anya's smile had gotten brighter when she noticed that she could escape from there without any yelling, "and when you fight that big bad of yours over there you won't have to worry about going to jail." The whole room went silent and looked at the ex-demon.

"What are you talking about?" asked Giles.

"His destiny," said Anya as if the whole thing was obvious not noticing the people in the room growing paler, "he is the one supposed to fight this bad guy who came back from the dead and defend the magic flow of the entire world, there is even a prophesy about it stored somewhere. I talked to D'Hoffryn this morning and he said that is why you were sent here, to train with the best and have a better chance in the fight."

"I thought he was supposed to go to prison," said Giles taking his glasses off his face and cleaning them with a handkerchief.

"According to the wish he was," answered Anya in her usual brighter than it should be attitude, "but when we checked the wish we noticed that this particular witch didn't have a previous right to place a wish, so we could work around it. D'Hoffryn arranged for Har… well, it's James now, so… for James to come here and be part of this family."

"And I'm very glad that you did it," said Joyce embracing James, "We are very happy to have him here. Thank you."

"My pleasure," Anya smiled at him and the rest of the room before turning to Xander, "I did the sharing thing like you said and it did feel good. Can we go back to your place and have more orgasms now?"

"Err…" blushed Xander looking apologetic to the others.

"Just go," Giles sighed. Anya's humanity was still a work in progress, he told himself, she would improve with time… he hoped as the ex-demon dragged her blushing boyfriend out of the door.

Giles turned around to see Joyce hugging James, he knew exactly why she was doing it. James was bound to feel like he had been forced upon them and that they only took him in because of the spell. He went up to them and put his arms around his wife and son, holding them close to his heart.

"Oh… group hug" he heard Buffy say before he felt the two girls embrace them too. All he could do was smile as he passed one of his arms around the closest girl shoulder and pulled her into the family embrace.

--- End of Flashback ---

That night, before turning off his lights, James checked once more the notes on the spell they used to defeat Adam. The Combo-Buffy spell as Xander called it. The union of the mannus, sophos, anima and spiritus – hand, mind, heart and soul – strength, intellect, love and magic. A union in perfect love and perfect trust just like magic demanded.

There was something, he could feel it. The sorting hat was always nagging about union. Maybe that was the key to killing Voldemort after all. Maybe they perform the spell someplace near Voldemort and then he would be able to… get arrested because they still thought he was a murder.

Who was he kidding? There was no way he could go back to the wizarding world before his name was cleared and so far a year had passed and nothing had changed. His hands were tied and there was nothing he could do about it except stay in Sunnydale and train for the upcoming battle. He only hoped he had enough time to prepare.

James started to wonder, again, if Xander would be too mad if he accidentally slayed Anya just a little.

-----------

At Hogwarts, one more year was ending but the celebration was greatly subdued. Voldemort had finally made his first move and tried to invade the Ministry of Magic and now the whole wizarding world knew that he was back. Everybody was in panic.

The Minister himself had issued a statement with precautions to increase security, but it didn't do much to quell the fear spreading amongst the wizards and witches. They were now demanding to know where was Harry Potter, who according to the Ministry had been taken out of Azkaban for health reasons but was still to receive a proper trial.

Snape found it immensely amusing that after a year of not even mentioning the boy's name, the whole wizarding world was now demanding news of their savior and his so much delayed trial.

Fudge was at his wits ends. There was only so much that he could do with the health treatment excuse. They would have to come up with something else fast. He could hide a criminal's disappearance, someone nobody wanted to see, for quite sometime but to hide the disappearance of the sole hope of the wizarding world was an entirely different matter, and there was also the problem of what Voldemort would do once he found out that Potter was gone. They had to find Potter, fast.

The muggle boy they had wrongly sent to Azkaban had been discreetly delivered to a muggle mental health facility. A few days later they discovered that the boy was actually a wanted criminal.

It was ironic, really. They had the muggle criminal with them in the wizarding world the whole time, while Potter was probably hiding in the muggle world. Fudge could only hope that when the kid did come back he would be in a better shape than the Burns kid had been when they sent him back.

Fudge sighed and got up from his desk. He was the Minister of Magic. He had a community to run, a war to prepare to and a hero to find. He didn't have was time to waste.

**Author's Note:**

I'm sorry, but I will not linger in the Sunnydale years. This is a Harry Potter fanfic and if I did the Sunnydale part as detailed as I would like this would take waaaaayyy too long. They do have something around 88 episodes, you know and – not all, but – some of them are just begging to make an appearance.

Sorry, but 'no can do'.

I'll do one or two chapters on Harry's adventures in US and bring them back to UK (I know, last time I said something like this about one of my fics I said VIP would be five chapters long at the most… and we all know how that worked out).

**ALSO, **there are references to almost every episode on Season 4 and one in Season 3 (Beer Bad, Pangs, Wild at Heart, Something Blue, New Moon Rising… just to mention a few - and Doppelganger). Sorry for not pointing them all out.


End file.
